The Edge
Performance. 2016
In 1989 an array of hydrophones built by the US Navy to detect enemy submarines picked up some strange signals. They were whale songs, and similar to blue whale calls, but there was one big difference. The key notes of the song were at a frequency of 52 Hz – significantly higher than the blue whale, which sings between 10 and 40 Hz. In fact, none of the known whale species can sing or hear at this frequency.
No one has seen the 52-hertz whale. Monitoring and recordings of the sound have allowed researchers to track the animal’s movement – every year the whale moves from California to Alaska, swimming 30-70 kilometres a day. The only image we have of the whale are the lines in an ocean map. The species and sex of the 52-hertz whale are unknown. We only know that there are no other whale songs like this one. Scientists speculate that the 52-hertz whale could be an “abnormal” blue whale or a crossbreed of the blue whale and another whale species. This whale is the last representative of this species. A deaf whale. An alien. The loneliest whale in the world. If there is truth in the theory that the main goal of the whale song is to attract a mating partner, no one will hear this whale.
Yet, the truth is that we don’t know why whales sing. Some people say – just because. After all, a whale has no other means of experiencing itself. A whale is almost blind, and there is hardly any smell in the water. Why does a movement in solitude make us sad and scared?
Where does the “I” remain when nobody is present?
Artists' Bios:
Kate Krolle (1984) is a graduate of the Art Academy of Latvia and the prestigious post-graduate and audiovisual research centre Le Fresnoy in France. Using a variety of media, the artist examines the relationships between nature and human life along with experience and instincts. In 2012, under the auspices of the contemporary art festival Survival Kit 4, Krolle co-created a video installation titled The Truth is Simple together with Atis Jākobsons, whereas in the next festival she collaborated with Anete Vanaga to create the installation and performance Gourmand. In August 2016, her second solo exhibition, I Could Be Elsewhere, was opened at the Floating Art Gallery Noass.
Agnese Krivade (1981) writes poetry, prose and literary analysis. Her first collection of poetry, Childhood, was published in 2007. Currently Krivade is interested in experimental text forms, chance, performance, movement and interdisciplinarity. In 2014, she collaborated with composer Oskars Herliņš to create the performance Drunkard for the Sound Forest music festival, but in 2015 she wrote an experimental text, Salle d’attente, for Ieva Epnere’s exhibition Waiting Room in Brussels.