With One Hundred Days of Walking, Rachel Epp Buller embarked on a daily walking practice as one way of listening in Alberta, Canada.
This walking piece is one of the shortlisted pieces in the Marŝarto Awards 2023. Here, Rachel discusses her work.
Go for a walk every day.
Listen to what the
snow, ice,
sun, wind,
trees, birds,
structures, and beings
tell your body about this place.
Keep listening.
I set this instructional score for myself before arriving in Edmonton, Alberta, where I spent the winter as a 2021-22 Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Arts and Humanities.
As an artist trained in the Deep Listening methods of Pauline Oliveros, I look to walking as a form of listening and so I embarked on a daily walking practice as one way of listening in, and learning about, a place that was new to me. As I walked, I listened with my whole body: my ears, my hands, my feet, my senses. I set myself in a listening orientation during this deep, dark winter, attuning to this place and its multispecies inhabitants. I listened to learn the many different types of snow. I listened as the trees of my neighborhood became familiar over time in their shapes and personalities. I listened with the many companions—magpies and coyotes and snowshoe hares—who traversed the same paths I walked.
I created daily accordion books as one visualization of my daily walking and listening—traces or palimpsests of steps taken and paths pursued, rendered in ink and watercolor. One hundred accordion books for one hundred days of walking, which upon my return home took shape as a room-sized installation. One Hundred Days of Walking includes 100 folded books, connected and strung together onto 100 feet of braided cotton string. The installation hangs from the ceiling in a meandering path that weaves in and around and above a vinyl graphic of the North Saskatchewan River that so often guided or offered a touchstone to my daily walking.
From some views, the accumulation of artist books is an orderly path; other views show it as messy and complex. I see this as akin to how we listen. Sometimes it is straightforward and easy to listen; other times we must lean in close, try hard to block out the distractions, and focus our listening attentions.
One Hundred Days of Walking was first installed as part of my solo exhibition, Invitations to Listen, at the Mulvane Art Museum, Washburn University (KS/US), January 15-June 5, 2023.
The winners and honourable mentions of the Marŝarto Awards 2023 will be announced in February 2024.
