When we are small, adulthood comes to us in impressions: a staticky scene from a horror film, an overheard whisper. As adults, we see childhood memories through a similar film. “I Hear a New World” seamlessly weaves together these visions of curiosity and nostalgia. An installment of Chthonic Archive, Jordan Rountree’s immersive multimedia project, the show tells the original story of a young French boy whose babysitter hires him to translate her letters to her American paramour.
A QR code links to audio from Rountree’s opening performance, which features narration from both characters (played by Rountree himself and performer Crystal Sasaki). Woodcuts of cloaked figures and strange terrain serve as focal points as patrons listen in. Rather than recreating the story’s events, the images take on the role of tarot cards, provoking reflection on the occult power of distance: the distance between two lovers, between the lovers and the world around them, and between innocence and experience. All the while, photographs of constructed and natural vistas from both Paris and Los Angeles are blown up onto a wall. Static, silent, and therefore unknowable, they bring the viewer back to the wonder of youth, or, of young romance.
