pe_ple_sc_ns (2017) for soprano, baritone & electronics • Ji Heng LEE
composed by Ji Heng LEE http://jihenglee.com
In response to Kurt Hörbst's People Scans
for the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition Concert 2017
Image used in video © Kurt Hörbst 2017 (http://people-scans.com)
Recorded in Nov 2017 by:
Amanda Ng (soprano)
Samuel Dewese (baritone)
Royal College of Music, London
Premiered 8 Dec 2017, National Portrait Gallery, London
I composed this piece for the Taylor-Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize Exhibition Concert, in response to Kurt Hoerbst’s People Scans — a photograph series of human subjects lying down facing a camera, which slowly ‘scans’ their full body profiles. I am struck by two aspects of Hoerbst’s work. He pushes the notion of ‘freezing’ a human subject (as in photography) to a conceptual extreme by literally scanning people flat. He also subverts the demand for high-speed (in digital photography) as he meticulously snaps twenty images for each subject and patiently stitches them together, paying attention to the details of his subjects’ physical features.
See corresponding page in my portfolio: https://jihenglee.com/portfolio/pe_pl...
Audio recording: / pe_ple_sc_ns-2017