The eloquence of folds

The eloquence of folds, a four-and-a-half-minute silent video work, consists of a single camera shot tracking the movements of a tap dancer’s shoes on a small raised platform. The shoes are those of a professional tap dancer with whom Meyer worked to create her contribution to the 13th Berlin Biennale: a twenty-minute, six-channel audio work featuring Meyer’s voice layered over rhythmic tapping. That work, Berlin Piece for Voice and Tap Dance, was developed during a fragile cultural climate in Berlin rife with funding cuts and debates over artistic censorship; Meyer’s rhythmic, lyrical composition drew on fragments of appropriated texts mingled with neologisms and linguistic play, revealing the desires, fears, and pressures underlying artistic production under increasingly difficult conditions.

The eloquence of folds was created from a video shot during a recording session of the tap audio eventually used in the audio work. In contrast to the complexity and density of the audio work though, Meyer’s singular focus on the tap dancer’s shoes engenders a concise elegance to this video work: the low framerate and pixelated quality of the file in combination with the tap dancer’s quick steps and the flowing fabric of her pants creates a hypnotic loop of movement. The ultimate product of the session, the percussive tap track, cannot be heard here; the video is but a small view behind the veil of artmaking, a performance in itself.

This presentation marks Sweetwater's final exhibition in Berlin before relocating to New York in 2027.