Watch a video of the artist Sue Tompkins performing her work, Letherin Through The Grille at New York City's White Columns space.
Tompkins tells Julian Cowley in The Wire 366 about her recent spoken word works: “I was thinking recently about The Ronettes and The Chiffons and Motown stuff, which I love. I wrote down the words ‘doo lang, doo lang’, then made a recording at home of myself singing it, and for the vinyl recording we have sampled that. I like to build an awareness of a song or an era. I was watching The Deer Hunter and there’s a scene where Christopher Walken is playing pool in a bar, and he sings along with Frankie Valli’s version of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”. In one of my performances I build up to that song. Not a full blown cover, but I gesture towards it. I’m not an improvisor. I don’t work like that. Everything is accumulated and thought about, without squeezing the life out of it. There’s thinking in it."
Sue Tompkins performs Orange Brainwash Tribute at Wysing’s Space-Time: The Future festival on 30 August.
Letherin Through The Grille is courtesy the artist and The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow. Recorded by Sam Richardson.
