“The Detritus of Our Lives: RAIR Present Martha McDonald’s ’Songs of Memory and Forgetting’ at Revolution Recovery”
“The Detritus of Our Lives: RAIR Present Martha McDonald’s ‘Songs of Memory and Forgetting’ at Revolution Recovery”
by SaraKay Smullens | Broad Street Review
June 20, 2016
RAIR (Recycled Artists in Residency) produced the quietly riveting performance artist Martha McDonald’s Song of Memory and Forgetting. The opening day performance and installation was scheduled for June 5 at Revolution Recovery, a construction-waste recycling facility that regularly receives materials from home cleanouts, often after one has died or moves to a care center.
Though rain stopped, the grounds and rubble where McDonald’s hour-long performance would take place (400 tons of materials are processed there each day) were too drenched and muddy to seat spectators. I attended a "replacement performance" on Father’s Day.
From trash, treasure
McDonald worked among the heaps and mountains of detritus at the construction site for six months, gathering touching, often heartbreaking, mementos, those traditionally protected by wives and mothers. In the blistering heat (with water and portable chairs available) she walked and sang, pointing out the beauty and hope, the longing and connection, the loss and heartbreak in her found artifacts. Her music, in lilting voice, with poignant lyrics, her face reflecting sadness and as well as joy, flowed. Most of the musical instruments she and her accompanist/collaborator, and RAIR cofounder, Billy Dufala used were also found among the ruins.