Unhistoric Acts

Unhistoric Acts is the middle panel in the triptych Vena (current, vein, pulse) which consists of three large scale independent pieces, each a full evening long. Together they create a triptych, dealing with the present from three different points of view: our home and its threats (Memory Palace), rage (Unhistoric Acts), and the (in)human (Immaterial). The name of the piece comes from George Eliott’s Middlemarch:

"For the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and things which are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the member who lived faithfully a hidden life and the rest is in unvisited tombs."

The text is composed of Kohelet, ("Everything has an appointed season, and there is a time for every matter under the sky"), of the context of George Floyd's murder (his sister’s words and words of Darnella Frazier's who took the video), and of words spoken by the choir about their experience during the COVID-19-pandemic. 

– Chaya Czernowin