Janice Kerbel works with a wide range of media including audio, print, radio plays and performance. Employing recognizable conventions from a variety of disciplines—from theatre to sport to music—Kerbel’s work inhabits existing structures while freeing them from their traditional use. In her work, events normally considered impossible to depict are given form that is both unexpected and strangely familiar.

Kerbel was nominated for her most recent work, DOUG, a musical composition in the form of nine songs for six voices. DOUG, the protagonist, moves through a choreographed history of imagined disaster, translating ‘accident’ into musical form. Voice, rhythmic verse and the structures inherent in music are used to give shape to the events that befall him. DOUG was commissioned by the Common Guild, Glasgow in 2014 and first staged at the Mitchell Library in May 2014.

See DOUG performed in Tramway between 1–4pm every day.

The daily performance programme is as follows:

Monday 1pm - Fall; Hit | 1:30pm - Fall | 2pm - Hit | 2:30pm - Fall; Hit | 3pm - Fall | 3.30pm - Hit

Tuesday 1pm - Choke | 1:30pm - Choke; Bear; Slip | 2pm - Choke; Bear; Slip | 2:30pm - Choke; Slip | 3pm - Bear | 3:30pm - Choke; Bear; Slip

Wednesday 1pm - Hit | 1:30pm - Sink | 2pm - Hit; Sink | 2:30pm - Hit | 3pm - Sink | 3:30pm - Hit; Sink

Thursday 1pm - Blast | 1:30pm - Fall; Hit | 2pm - Choke; Bear; Crash | 2:30pm - Blast; Fall; Hit; Choke; Bear; Crash; Strike; Sink; Slip | 3pm - Strike; Sink | 3:30pm - Slip

Friday  1pm - Strike; Sink | 1:30pm - Sink | 2pm - Strike | 2:30pm - Strike; Sink | 3pm - Sink | 3:30pm - Strike

Saturday 1pm - Blast | 1:30pm - Fall; Hit | 2pm - Choke; Bear; Crash | 2:30pm - Blast; Fall; Hit; Choke; Bear; Crash; Strike; Sink; Slip | 3pm - Strike; Sink | 3:30pm - Slip

Sunday 1pm - Blast | 1:30pm - Fall; Hit | 2pm - Choke; Bear; Crash | 2:30pm - Blast; Fall; Hit; Choke; Bear; Crash; Strike; Sink; Slip | 3pm - Strike; Sink | 3:30pm - Slip

Performers

Rachel Hynes (Soprano)
Sarah Power (Soprano)
Margaret Ravalde (Mezzo-Soprano)
Sarah Shorter (Mezzo-Soprano)
Inkeri Kallio (Mezzo-Soprano)
Jemma Brown (Alto)
Lewis Bretherton (Counter-Tenor)
Phil Gault (Tenor)
James Slimmings (Tenor)
James Corrigan (Barritone)
Andrew McTaggart (Barritone)
Douglas Nairne (Baritone)
Andrew Tipple (Bass)

Janice Kerbel was born in Canada in 1969 and lives and works in London. She completed her BFA at Emily Carr College of Art and Design, Vancouver, in 1994 before undertaking an MA in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Kerbel has exhibited internationally since the late 1990s and has participated in numerous group exhibitions and biennales. Recent projects include DOUG, commissioned by The Common Guild (2014); Kill the Workers, Chisenhale, London; Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe and Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff Centre for the Arts (2011); See it Now, for Art Now, Tate Britain (2010); Ballgame, Sheffield Festival (2008); Remarkable, commissioned for Frieze Projects (2007); and Nick Silver Can’t Sleep, commissioned by Artangel/BBC Radio 3 (2006) and presented live at Art Now Live, Tate Britain (2007).

Documentation by Keith Hunter.