Out From The Deep: Unraveling Them Turners

  

UNRAVEL:

/ uhn-rav-uhl /

verb (used with object)

  1. to separate or disentangle the threads of (a woven or knitted fabric, a rope, etc.).

  2. to free from complication or difficulty; make plain or clear; solve: to unravel a situation; to unravel a mystery.

  3. Informal. to take apart; undo; destroy (a plan, agreement, or arrangement).

verb (used without object)

  1. to become unraveled.

Out From the Deep: Unraveling Them Turners

In May of 1918, Mary Turner was lynched by a white mob while 8-months pregnant. Her husband, Hayes, had been murdered by the same band of racial terrorists just the day before. Out From the Deep is a live performance experiment and augmented reality dreamscape meant to honor the lives of the Turners while offering a living testimony of the horrors they were made to suffer. The first iteration of this work, A Meditation for Them Turners, archived their experiences across three acts: Tender, Truth, and Hypnosis.

The 2020 work compelled audiences to grapple with uncomfortable truths and overcome the resulting trauma by drawing upon imagery of hidden tenderness and strength: nature's streams, veins and pathways of transformation, and kaleidoscopes of sacred geometry.

Now, Out From the Deep enters a second iteration, Unraveling Them Turners, which channels the intimate experience of Mary and Hayes in the days before, during, and after the decimation of their family.

… entanglement  with the catastrophic… 

Aware of the common practice for racist crowds to take pictures during a lynching, which would then be shared as memorabilia and postcards afterward, Unraveling Them Turners dives head-first into the absurdity of the racist Jim Crow legal system that encouraged and condoned this culture of violence.

A live performance-in-five-parts will take place by invitation only on May 1st, following which five augmented reality posters will be shared throughout the city for public interaction. Meant to unravel the murderous hold of the crowd’s noose and instead reclaim its power for the benefit of Mary and Hayes, each poster will be coded with short clips depicting a kind of voyeurism in reverse: Agony surrendering to the love story. A reckoning in torment with the triumph of their story unfolding.