Played as they lay

Played as they lay is a single channel projection which follows a series of moths as found in pantry traps. I collected these long-forgotten cardboard traps from dark corners of my apartment building during quarantine. Each moth was seized in a unique stance, lured by pheromones, captured in tacky adhesive. In this work their gentle forms are read like braille to compose an accompanying score, tracing the path of the moths and transferring their configuration into notes placed on a stave.

The mass grave of moths become literal markers, like holes punched into scroll sheet music used by early twentieth century player pianos—cited as the beginnings of musical instrument digital interface technology (known as MIDI). The work surfaces attitudes around cohabiting with pests; of ethical problems met with ambivalence. Its focus is on identifying aporia and moral dilemmas in commonplaces, through subtle frictions between domestic spaces and the landscape, to describe the poetics of finding and living with dissonance.

Image: Played as they lay, jen valender, 2020, single channel colour video still.