Rented Words

by Krzysztof Honowski

A performance for camera, using Auto-Tune and karaoke to engender an estranged iteration of the present.

An improvised half-sung half-declaimed interpretation of the texts of Jack Smith.

Although what is performed are not just the texts of Jack Smith.

Due to legal complications around the artist’s estate, Smith’s texts are at present most widely accessible online in bootleg form. I took this strange congruence with Smith’s life and attitudes as the point of departure for my ‘rented’ interpretation of Smith’s texts. In a complication intended to parallel Smith’s ‘catastrophic’ process, I presented the work as a contemporary embodiment of Smith’s artistic persona.

Camera by Benjamin Ramírez Pérez Invited by Charles Richardson

Rented Words was presented remotely via ustream at the [screen-time] event at Assembly Point, London, on Friday 13th May 2016.

c. 10 min