the_visitation (1080p).mp4

THE VISITATION: A SOUND WALK
Created by Stephanie Fleischmann, Christina Campanella & Mallory Catlett

Music, Narration & Audio Production: Christina Campanella
Words: Stephanie Fleischmann

Presented by HERE Arts Center with commissioning from Café Royal Cultural Foundation and Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Inspired by the appearance of a one-antlered deer in Harlem in 2016, this site-specific sound walk is a meditation on the presence of the mythic in the everyday and the uneasy relationship between the built environment and the natural world. The Visitation takes the listener on an urban odyssey in search of the collective memory of the deer’s sojourn in Jackie Robinson Park via geo-located avant-pop songs that conjure a series of encounters with the buck.

A soundscape threaded through with the ethereal voice of the deer traverses interior landscapes and terrain ranging from far-reaching urban vistas to a dense canopy of trees, from the former wilderness of the park to the blacktop of basketball courts and playgrounds. Mesingw, a Lenape spirit associated with the deer, who could, it was believed, reinstate balance to a disease-inflicted earth, once inhabited this place. Where is he now? How do we navigate his absence, and that of Artemis, Greek goddess of nature, from our contemporary lives? What are the repercussions of the ways we continue to colonize the land on which we live?

A visceral sonic journey through our longing for the solace of the wild, The Visitation charts the histories and hauntings of a particular urban geography, embedded within the geology of time.

Although created specifically for the topography of Jackie Robinson Park, The Visitation Soundwalk can also be accessed remotely, offering a rich sonic experience to listeners the world over.

Video filmed and edited by Mallory Catlett