In this edition by A K Dolven, a white vinyl record is the sound carrier for a 22-minute language piece, which is to be performed as a sound installation using a record player and loudspeakers. This was often done in a cinema or a theater. JA, as long as I can is a language duet between the Norwegian artist and the American poet and performance artist John Giorno (1936-2019). A K Dolven and Giorno first met in the summer of 2011 on the Lofoten Islands in Norway and spontaneously arranged to produce the spoken piece together in New York the following year. Without prior rehearsals, the two took turns varying the word “yes” for as long as their breath lasted. Each side acted in its own emotional and rhythmic dynamic. As an artistic endeavor, JA, as long as I can is a study of time, of sound and of the voice as the oldest medium of mankind, as curator Gaby Hartel explains in her text for Cinemateket.1 In the alternation of the material qualities of the female and male voice, the sound reflects the psychological and physical processes that arose between the two performers during the production. The record sleeve shows two photographs taken by A K Dolven above her house in Kvalnes on the Lofoten Islands.
Text: Eva Scharrer
1 See: www.cinemateket.no/filmer/ja-as-long-as-i-can.