purdah

purdah reflects on the practice of female segregation and female practices. (Pardah or purdah (from Persian: پرده‎, meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion). While working on this piece I was reflecting on my childhood years spent in Dagestan — “the most culturally diverse republic in the Caucasus, and at the Caspian Gates” (Wikivoyage), and at the same time, according to BBC, “the most explosive place in Russia - and in Europe”.

The piece also derives inspiration from Eastern European (that I know mostly from my time spent in European part of Russia) tradition of folk dance and chastushka performance ("chastushka is a recent genre of folklore, generated by the influence of industrial culture on the peasant milieu”, Svetlana Adonyeva, “The Pragmatics of the Chastushka: A Sociolinguistic Study”). I recall chastushkas’ performers narrating their life stories in a cheerful manner often on a border with absurdity as if this approach can lighten up the unbearable burden of their hard lives.

Performers (Yarn/Wire):

Laura Barger and Julia Den Boer — pianos

Russell Greenberg and Sae Hashimoto, percussion