Ritual of Matter Dedicated to the Executives of S.E.X.Co., (Sophie Etulips Xylang Company)
This audio script narrates the scriptwork presented during boma pak's exhibition <Ritual of Matter>, held at Leeum Museum of Art from July 25th to December 24th, 2023. The script encapsulates events leading up to the <Ritual of Matter> exhibition, anticipated occurrences during the exhibition, imagined events post-exhibition, and a performance <Opera: Sky Blue Canon Infinitus> conducted in connection with the exhibition, held in the museum lobby area.
Boma Pak: Ritual of Matter
(Leeum Museum of Art, 25 July - 24 December, 2023)
Script: Ritual of Matter Dedicated to the Executives of S.E.X.Co., (Sophie Etulips Xylang Company)
What happened only once,
what we thought happened,
what we hoped would happened,
and what we mistakenly believed to have happened
PROLOGUE
ACT Ⅰ PRIOR TO THE EVENT
ACT Ⅱ MID EVENT
INTERLUDE
ACT Ⅲ AFTER THE EVENT, OPERA: SKY BLUE CANON INFINITUS
EPILOGUE
PROLOGUE
METAPHORS OR MEMORIES
Fade In (slowly)
Bremen, Germany
An artist peeks around a window that catches her eyes. The inside of the window was always veiled with heavy cloth, and the vase and artificial flowers on the shelve by the window had faded to light blue since long ago. There was no way to disturb this window in a harbor city from reflecting the sky and sunset so fully everyday despite the tall buildings. The artist admired it every day. One day, she found a piece of silk fabric in a market. It reflected fading orange and light blue colors. She taped it over the window. She later learned that the street was by a red-light district.
Fade out
Extremely bright
Gwanghwamun, Seoul
For many years, Receptionist R has wandered around the company’s lobbies. She was to inform them where the company sold the sky. She would capture and collect the sky and sunlight reflected off of skyscrapers’ glass windows, and decorate the company’s lobbies with them.
Fade Out
ACT Ⅰ
PRIOR TO THE EVENT
CHARACTERS
Security Guards
Curator
Designer
Receptionist R
Matter
Artist
Executives of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company
Cleaners
Actors
businless girl
Sopranos
Employees of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company
Receptionists
Us
Composer
Photographer
Owner of Company
Scene 1
Fade In
Clear sky, the museum entrance
Cleaner grabs a handful crushed rubber pieces and sparkling pieces of paper from a long sand pit on the museum entrance.
Fade Out
Scene 2
Studio, phone call
Artist asks Composer to write a heavenly vibrating piece in honor of Atom’s theme song. Composer is an old friend of Artist.
Fade Out
Scene 3
Fade In
A recording studio in Sadang, Seoul
Artist looks for the voices of the executives of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company, because they are not really here. She found three sopranos. One with a soft, deep voice, another with a tone full of textures and contexts, and a third with a high-pitched voice that is both delicate and firm. Since the executives don’t actually exist, Artist asks Sopranos if they could hold a single note without breaking. They say it is impossible.
When Sopranos enter the recording room and make sounds, they look translucent.
Fade Out
Scene 4
Fade In (slowly)
The museum’s lobby
Artist casts Actors to materialize the shadow of the executives of the Sophie Etulips Xylang Company. The afterimage here is about, the Sohpies, flying away to the sky? Oh, the women of the S.E.X.Co., no, it's about the executives of Sophie Etulips Xyalng Company, ah? Practically speaking, the skies fallen from the sky, the afterimage of the sky? Ah, no, I mean, imagine the windows of our company’s skyscraper suddenly bursting. Surprised by the sound of the explosion, you scream and glass shards shimmer in the air, dripping rainwater and crashing into each other, breaking the air into a billion pieces, and among them is a tiny speck of glass dust that has drifted off somewhere, and the existence of that speck of glass dust? A gesture, an illusion, a falsehood that will expand. There was a sparkle of energy in meeting the actors. It was like we had met before.
Light (towards off-stage)
Fade Out
Scene 5
Fade In
A conference room at the museum
Receptionist R and businless girl, both longtime employees of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company, attend a few meetings at the museum. In the conference room, sitting at the table, talking to Curator and Designer who work there... That is, sitting in the chair there, touching it, listening to the water run down the table where the cups are set and vibrate through the air as they fall, and then leaving the conference room again, touching the walls in the space where the exhibition planned to take place, measuring the distance with their footsteps, Receptionist R and businless girl, noticing where they're going to install the skies they've been guiding and doing business with, their eyelashes turned light blue. In fact, Curator had long been deeply involved with the Sophie Etulips Xylang Company, and there had been irregular secretive meetings with businless girl and Receptionist R for years.
Agenda so far is as follows:
How can it be nonexistent but be, then be existent but not be?
A wine bar in Seoul
Two people sitting back to back
Designer and Receptionist R brushed shoulders like a destiny a few months ago at a wine bar in the heart of Seoul. Designer shed tears that night, and Receptionist R cried a couple days before that.
Fade Out
Scene 6
Fade In
Heavy rain (sound)
Lobby of the museum
dancer qhak of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company, receptionist R, and a photographer wandered through the company's lobby and performed a series of acts - putting up a marble-shaped sheet pillars the company sent them, touching the walls of the lobby, releasing cigarette buts and cash - and met some people. Finally, officially meeting Security Guard, Cleaner, and Receptionist with whom we handed out fliers and shook hands, unintentionally played a game of wit, and discussed secretive matters. Receptional R never thought they could shake hands as they do not have forearms, but how strong is the power of love? Receptionist R shook hands with two Cleaners as if in phantom pain.
In a cab
Although the meeting was short, it was inevitable that the love between the company and us was something we cannot hide or express through words. Receptionist R called businless girl of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company to deliver the news. They say we get to light up our executives and mourn them there. Two people in tears. Water drops hanging on the window.
Fade Out with Chorus Sound
₊‧ ˚₊‧✩ •⋆⋆ ໊ .Sophie Etulips Xylang . ༘ ໊ ⋆ • ੈ✩‧₊˚ ‧₊
ACT Ⅱ
MID EVENT
CHARACTERS
Architect
Artist
Wall Stroker
Light Designer
Executives of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company
Builders
Installation Assistant
Starter of Lobby
Passerby
Spell Caster
Believer of Angel’s Wings
One With Ribbons Wrapped Around Them
One With Ribbons Attached
Believer of Scent in Sky Blue Artificial Flower
Maker of Long Sky
Counter of Sky
Cutter of Sky
One With Beads Called Sky Wrapped Around Them
Scene 1
Fade In (Spotlight)
In front of a laptop on a desk, a few years ago
Maker of Long Sky keeps scrolling, showing people the continuing sky
they made. They come back home, open the laptop, and start Photoshop.
They turn the digital image into a long rectangle, making a sky sash
that connects the left end to the right end, imagining one “eternal sky.”
Fade Out
Scene 2
Fade In
Inside the museum
Loud noises, chainsaws cutting wooden boards, wind from the stable
guns, thumps, motors running. Test playing the executives’ voices
from the speaker…
Architect and Builders put up walls into which the shadows of Sophie
Etulips Xylang Company’s executives will be embedded. So that they
could be covered… They cut, move, and put up plywood. Walking
around in a cloud of plywood dust and grit, and thinking, oh, because
our executives have flown to the sky at some point, or should I say,
fallen from the sky? Then… What about the walls of the lobby? Does
this make the lobby the sky? Are the builders building a cut-up sky?
The sky is fitted to its place within the walls of the museum.
At that moment, the man who was painting the wall sings along with
the voices of the executives.
Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah
Wrapping up the construction, they stroked the walls, and dusted off
their clothes.
Shimmering sky blue dust
spreads in the air.
As they come out, the lobby opens.
Executives fly in from the sky, and count the sky blue dust in the air
and dirt from the floor one by one. They slowly circle around the pillars of the museum lobby, one by one, and gradually walk into the inner walls of the sky, embedding themselves within the walls.
Light Designer hangs four suns for them, orchestrating their illumination. The light makes the time in this place begin, once and for all and ever to come to an end.
Fade Out
Scene 3
Fade In
A summer night
In front of the museum railing heated with light, inside the lobby,
the entrance, restrooms, the ticket booth, etc.
Artist drapes a long sky ribbon over the museum’s railings.
Installation Assistant
ties or glues the sky blue ribbon here and there.
Putting in sky blue artificial flowers
and praying that it is fragrant.
Placing sky blue beads throughout the museum's restrooms, cabinets,
and lobby.
Flicking the beads through the wire fence to the entrance of an
exhibition that closed.
Nearby bar
After installation, two people sit next to each other
at the nearby bar.
The one counting the sky says this time there are
approximately 552995 skies. The one who cut the sky
says it’s less than that.
Inside the museum with lights off
A person who stayed behind at the museum walked through the lobby
as they found something on the floor
and approached it. They see a sky blue feather fallen on the floor and
pick it up.
They have always believed that angels have sky blue wings.
Outside the museum
The sky hanging from the railings flutters in the summer night breeze.
The sky goes to sleep excited at the thought of reflecting the sky again
when the day breaks.
Fade Out Followed by Chorus Sound
₊‧ ˚₊‧✩ •⋆⋆ ໊ .Sophie Etulips Xylang . ༘ ໊ ⋆ • ੈ ✩‧₊˚ ‧₊
INTERLUDE
Fade In
The museum is about to close.
The lobby fills with the announcement that the museum is closing
The audience who has not yet left merges with the ones coming in after
closing.
Fade Out
ACT Ⅲ
After the Event, Opera: Sky Blue Canon Infinitus
“The owner of the company is who comes close and touches it…”
- fldjf studio (2021)
CHARACTERS
Audience:
One who walks
One singing along
One with tears
One running around
One who sits on the lobby’s floor
One who has seen it a few times
One who claps
One sitting behind the stool
One listening to the sound
One who is awkward
One who is a first-timer
52990 skies and more
One who sees the people going up to the sky
One who takes the sky
One who embraces the sky
One who sympathizes with the sky
One who documents the sky
One who distributes the sky
One who witness the fallen sky
One who fell from the sky
One who touches the sky
One who stares at the sky dunk on water
One who throws away the sky
One who loves the sky
One who listens to the sound of the sky
One who counts the sky
One who begins the sky
One who clears out the sky
One who swings the sky
Actors
Scene 1
Fade In
A sunny day
Summer evening, still bright and warm
Hill to the museum
The audience walks towards the museum.
They see the sky hanging, tied, resting, decorated, on the railing on the way to the museum.
There are one, two, three, four, five, six, ...
thirty or more skies hanging.
The sky makes a sound.
The person documenting the sky captures sky one , two, three... on
camera.
Fade Out
Scene 2
Fade In
The museum entrance
A long sky drapes around the pillar and stretches to the entrance of the
museum.
Audience follows the long sky to the entrance of the museum.
The sound of the sky is in the air.
Fade Out
Scene 3
Fade In
The museum lobby
(The lobby full of piano music)
There are cameras to document the performance.
A person with a sky blue envelope
stands, sits, and wanders around, randomly but fairly distributing the
sky to the people coming to the museum.
Some would approach them and ask for the sky.
A person wandering about the lobby looks at the sky over the bars of a closed exhibition.
A person stopping by the restroom looks at the sky drenched in water,
a sparkling ball of sky, and a sky blue ribbon hanging from the
doorknob.
Someone unties a sky blue ribbon from the bars that secure the closed
museum’s store.
A person opens cabinets marked 118, 66, 49, 204, 114 and hears the
sound of the sky.
Awaiting the performance, a person walks around the lobby counting
how many shiny skies there are on the floor.
This person and another shake the sky, making sounds.
Someone takes the leaflet introducing the sky blue sponge rose
and makes a fan out of it and sways,
spreading the smell of the sky.
The sky scent comes from the sky blue sponge rose
that fell from the sky in 2010
that absorbed the love, death, sensation, worldliness
stability, and lightness
from the ground
…
Scene 4
The museum lobby
The piano melody and
lobby ambience
Soon the logo sound of Sophie Etulips Xylang Company rings.
₊‧ ˚₊‧✩ •⋆⋆ ໊ .Sophie Etulips Xylang . ༘ ໊ ⋆ • ੈ ✩‧₊˚ ‧₊
A person sitting in a lobby walks to the center.
She reaches out to take a light blue stick with her hands.
Then she slides around the sky blue silver bells.
The sky makes a sound.
Ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling, ting-a-ling -
One who documents the sky moves through the crowd, capturing the
sky with a camera.
As she slowly walks a lap around the lobby making a sound of the sky, the performance begins.
The sky bells roll and spread around the lobby …
Then, a person in sky blue costume
begins singing.
Another person in sky blue follows and begins singing.
Yet another sky person begins singing.
They use their voices
and then don’t,
as sky blue bells hanging from somewhere would make a sound,
The would take their shoes off or walk around
sit with their legs crossed and sing
run away then stop
touching someone’s shoulders and making sounds
whispering and exchange signs
chasing one another
shedding tears
singing
in a joyful laughter
in rehearsal.
A couple or more people sing along after the ones repeating after the
song.
They gather in the center and repeat the last part three times,
and the song ends.
Actors join hands and bow to the audience,
then turn around and bow one more time.
People applaud and the performance comes to an end.
Actors exit.
Some leave behind the sky
that was gifted to them,
some taking it with them.
The audience exit.
(Bells chiming)
Fade Out
Scene 4
Fade In
Artist sweeps the sky blue ribbons, bells, and sparkles into a corner,
picks them up, and goes home.
Fade Out
THE END
EPILOGUE
Fade In
Faint yellow light of the museum lobby (Lobby ambience)
Executives taxidermied in a single day
and the feelings… marble, silver matter, light, vibration, and scent…
The effects cover with ease what cannot be spoken.
Eighty years later
Bright sky blue light
(smog)
People who had met at the lobby bump into one another somewhere
else. But they are born as taxidermies and look to be asleep
like Sohpies awaiting to be taxidermied…
(Sky blue eyelashes delicately fluttering to the wind)
Or they do meet
but they look a sleep
because when the two eyes of the sky blue wings blink
they are transported somewhere else. In the sky.
.
.
.
