'Songs of Ascension' takes flight at REDCAT

When the musician Meredith Monk and the visual artist Ann Hamilton first worked together in 2001, they created "Mercy," a work that was described variously as dance, opera, musical theater and installation art. The performance was a meditation on violence and fear, conceived in response to a photograph of a Palestinian family who had been victims of Gaza Strip crossfire. To illustrate its big themes, Hamilton placed a micro video camera in Monk's mouth, and a group of women sang into a soap bubble the size of the stage.

By Ross Simonini

October 29, 2008