Nora Turato's 'Untitled'
4pm, Room 189, Samson Pavilion at the CWRU Health Education Campus
Nora Turato will perform her most recent spoken-word performance on September 29th and 30th as part of FRONT. Originally conceived for and performed at MoMA, New York earlier in March this year, Turato’s piece takes the form of a compilation of found language culled by the artist over the course of the year in the run-up to the exhibition in New York. Each of Turato’s performances are carefully scripted, with every particular intonation, elocution and any repetition or emphasis of speech intentionally devised by the artist - all presumed improvisatory elements are in actuality specifically considered to the delivery of the performance.
At once adopting personas akin to a salesperson or a motivational speaker, Turato’s most recent performance deftly weaves through boastful bravados on a protein bar business, an obscure anecdote of a hazing ritual involving Einstein’s brain to descriptions of artificial intelligence used to speculate on fluctuating oil prices. Using the ubiquitous language of marketing and media, Turato’s shifts from topic to topic are undetectable as she maintains her sales pitch tone throughout. As Turato brings together this collection of texts within the performance at FRONT (and in her wider practice overall), she forms a portrait of our present-day, oversaturated with information and language.
