Crying rooms are the small, soundproof chambers at the back of theatre auditoriums and churches where you can experience an event via one-way glass and live audio feed without disrupting the congregation.
But what if a crying room was actually a space dedicated to emotions – a place not to conceal tears, but to invoke them?
As audience members in the midst of a pandemic, we have been increasingly relegated to the privacy of our own isolated, online viewing chambers – our very own crying rooms.
A dissociative digital mirror house of disparate imagery combining poetry, horror, datamoshing, autotune and Pavaroti – The Crying Room is a deeply personal and form-fucking work about grief and the internet.
The Crying Room was originally performed over Zoom for Arts Centre Melbourne’s Take Over commission. The project has been supported by Creative Victoria and City of Melbourne.
The Crying Room is presented as part of STRAY VOLTAGE, KINGS Artist Run’s iterative video program, collaboratively facilitated by Rebecca McCauley and Aaron Claringbold. Looking to the potential that exists between seemingly incompatible ideas, STRAY VOLTAGE premises an experimental program of critically engaged moving image works, fundamentally grounded by the earth.
STRAY VOLTAGE is supported by the City of Melbourne 2022 Annual Arts Grants Program.