LA singer/songwriter Dudley Saunders’ IN THESE BOXES is an uncommon – and uncanny – mix of live music, narratives and video art that explores the human need to keep the dead from disappearing by holding on to their things. He’s asking the local DC community for photos of the objects people have inherited from loved ones and can’t let go of. Post them to Instagram with the hash-tag #InTheseBoxes or send them directly to [email protected]. Dudley will take 12 objects left behind and weave each of them into a video hallucination of the missing life projected on the screen behind him as he sings their stories. These personal mementos will be incorporated into the final video art piece in the BloomBars show and will live in perpetuity online at www.InTheseBoxes.com, in what he calls “a social media cemetery”. In these two ways, these emotional objects can become part of a living piece of art.
The piece is inspired by his own AIDS-era history: “In the fall of 1991, my two ex-lovers died within two months of each other. But what made it worse was realizing that everyone who remembered us together was also dead. Their few objects were the only evidence that they had existed, and had meaning no-one else could understand: how can you explain why an old spoon is important?”
BloomBars is located at 3222 11th St NW Washington, DC. Show time is 8:00 PM. Tickets are $8.
