MeleCh is an audio-visual installation by artist, performer and Chicks on Speed band-member Anat Ben-David, comprising a triptych of screens featuring mythical singing characters in perpetual movement.
The video works presented in MeleCh – the Hebrew word for King – are developed using an improvisational method of speaking or singing words into a sound oscillator and observing their rhythmic effects. The sonic patterns created trigger new ideas about what words to utter and how they might be performed. The themes developed are then constructed into visual narratives through choreographed body movements performed for the camera in a process the artist has named OperaArt. Honed during Ben-David’s PhD research at Kingston University, this working method is based upon biomechanics and performance improvisation that entails a form of subjective bifurcation; the artist split into the two entities of performer and producer by distancing herself from both her body and voice through interacting with digital interfaces.
The original installation and live event was performed in January 2013, accompanied by a 12″ vinyl edition and printed booklet available for sale directly from Stanley Picker Gallery as a standard black vinyl edition ( £15) and special-edition signed yellow vinyl ( £30).