TONGUES OF FIRE

tongues of fire
single-channel video projection, 6 mirrors, 6 mins, with sound, dried desert branches, lavender, various flowers and herbs
17 ft x 9.6 ft (projection), 48 x 64.5 inches (mirrors)
installation view at Ballroom Marfa, TX, 2023

installation view, 2023

tongues of fire
2022-23,
1 min 9 seconds excerpt, full length 6:00 mins, with sound

close-up detail

tongues of fire,
indoor video installation, on view during gallery hours

tongues of fire
single-channel (3 scroll) video, with sound, mirrors
outdoor night video installation, on view after gallery hours

tongues of fire
installation view, 2023

tongues of fire
commissioned by Ballroom Marfa, 2022-23
6:00 mins, with sound, English, Spanish, Korean

tongues of fire is a moving image poem that reflects on language as a living body and spirit, drawing from a haunting linguistic history in Marfa -- the burial ceremony of non-english language(s) that took place, particularly in 1959 at the Blackwell School. Decades later, the local immigrant youths gathered to collectively unbury their language: the film is inspired by their unearthing. Decentering an anglophonic view, Chun summons various tongues – Spanish, English, and her mother tongue, Korean. The non-narrative film speaks through polyphony; multilingual fragments, lyrical soundscapes, vistas of engraved alphabets found at the linguistic burial site, and footages of Chun’s moving image performance in the night desert. Chun makes offerings to the night and its buried languages, with projected light, moving images, flowers, pomegranates, and mirrors. tongues of fire offers a nocturne for the living languages and their diasporas.

The film speaks inside / outside -- the indoor installation is on view during gallery hours / the outdoor installation is on view after gallery hours, until 11pm.
On view May 24 - September 16, 2023

*The title is an homage to and quote from Gloria E.Anzaldúa, from her letter/essay, Speaking in Tongues: A Letter to 3rd World Women Writers, 1980