Film
Tal Vez Soy Yo la Sílaba
by Brian Allen
Performance
Fabián Avila, electronics
Natalia Pérez, cello
Brian Allen, piano, percussion & melodica
& Guadalupe Galván, poetry
Mail Art
about the art
This month we’re presenting Tal Vez Soy Yo la Sílaba (Maybe I am the Syllable), a music, poetry and film project by longtime collaborators Brian Allen, Guadalupe Galván, Fabián Avila, and Natalia Pérez.
The film is an abstract travel essay by Brian that he assembled using a collection of video and imagery from his 2 months of traveling through Portugal. Brian usually scores his own films, but for this film he asked Guadalupe, a poet, Fabián, an electronic musician, and Natalia, a cellist, to create poetry and sounds for the film. Brian edited the video while imagining the words and sound his friends might create, then glued the project together with his own sound contributions of melodica, percussion, and piano.
The mail art is from a series of drawings and haikus that Guadalupe created in response to the film by Brian. The simple line drawing and brevity of the haiku reflect her passion for music and its omnipresence in her work; like musical improvisation, her process hopes to capture what happens in the moment.
The pairing of Guadalupe’s sketches and poetry and Brian’s film, give us a glimpse of the long-term creative friendship of these artists.