Mortal Voice, a collaboration between Karina Utomo and Cūrā8 (Kim Donaldson and Sean Lowry), was presented as part of Dark Mofo 2025. This live activation of an immersive video installation responsive work reimagined voice as a raw elemental force, pushing beyond language toward registers of abstraction, ritual and transcendence. The live performance, amplified by the vast acoustics of the Basilica’s interior, transformed a space of worship into both resonant chamber and metaphysical threshold. Leadings critics described the work as at once “sublime,” “unsettling” and “transcendent,” highlighting its capacity to collapse distinctions between performer, audience, architecture, and ritual event. By activating voice as a visceral and affective medium, Mortal Voice demonstrates how intermedial performance with video installation can function between the attention economies of contemporary art and live music<p></p>
Funding
Cura8 for project8;Collaborative Research Agreement between Arts@Collins International Gallery Pty Ltd and The University of Melbourne;TS26568
History
NTRO Output Category
- Original Creative Work : Visual artwork
Place
HobartVenue
Basilica, Dark MofoNTRO Publisher
Dark MofoMedium
Performance and video installationResearch Statement
This articulation of an ongoing collaboration between vocalist Karina Utomo and curatorial duo Cūrā8 (Kim Donaldson and Sean Lowry), was staged in Hobart’s historic St Mary’s Cathedral during Dark Mofo 2025. Rooted in experimental performance, video installation and site-specific resonance, the work interrogated mortality, transcendence and collective embodiment through voice and space.
Mortal Voice contributes to artistic research by foregrounding the human voice as a visceral, destabilising and transcendent medium for testing the limits of interpretation and abstraction. The live vocal performance activation of the video installation harnessed the cathedral’s reverberant acoustics to amplify affective registers of grief, rage and ritual yearning. Rather than presenting voice as a vehicle for communicative clarity, it repositioned vocal utterance as an elemental force. It also reimagined how ritualised sound might dissolve distinctions between performer, audience, architecture and metaphysical speculation.
Mortal Voice demonstrated a capacity to both transform conditions of perception and generate substantial public and critical impact. Presented within the charged atmosphere of Dark Mofo 2025, the work was widely reviewed in major outlets including Artlink, Artshub, Rolling Stone and Wall of Sound, where it was described as “transcendent,” “unsettling,” and “sublime” for its ability to evoke both the abyssal and the sacred. Approximately 500 people attempted to attend the live performance (with maximum capacity 160), while BASILICA attracted around 6000 entries each weekend it was open. By reactivating the cathedral as both resonant chamber and metaphysical threshold, Mortal Voice demonstrates how interdisciplinary collaborations can reframe voice as a visceral inquiry into human finitude and transcendence.Size or Duration of Work
12 minute video on loop with occasional additional performance activationAffiliation
Sean Lowry, University of Melbourne
