University Art Museum Berkeley, 2626 Bancroft Way, Berkeley

Terry Fox and Georg De Cristel, Flagellating Doppler (October 1978)

Description

The performance lasted five hours. During this period I remained in the central ground floor space while De Cristal wandered throughout the open galleries of the museum, playing his jew’s harp, teaching others to play with them, giving them away, and occasionally dropping the dry wood from one of the many open terraces onto the cement floor of the central space. During this, I swung the bamboo poles one at a time in large sweeping arcs, producing very low wooshing or breathing sounds, which could be heard throughout the museum. I did this until exhausted, and then took a short break by playing electric razor as a sort of “beard harp”, to correspond with De Cristal’s jew’s harp. This was done by placing the razor against my cheek and using my mouth as a resonator, producing the various overtones of the razor’s motor. I was sometimes joined in this by De Cristal, and we played together on our harps. This would then be followed by a return to the poles, then back to the razor, etc., for five hours. (Fox 2000: 137-8)