Stone Him (with Antonia Luxem)

This song/video-piece was a collaboration with filmmaker Antonia Luxem and Shadwell Opera. We collaborated on the themes of queerness, sport, and food. We were interested in the rules we're often given to live our lives by.

The text is biblical, taken from the uncannily practical Book of Deuteronomy, setting a part of the Deuteronomic code that concerns social regulation. This is part of a long-standing personal interest in this part of the Bible. It is around here that we find the parts of the bible often cited in opposition to gay rights, nestled alongside verses that outlaw shrimp consumption, or give detailed instructions for constructing ceremonial clothes.

The part we used for this piece details how to discipline a son if he becomes gluttonous, drunk, and disrespectful, advising corporal punishment, ritual humiliation, and murder. This section of the bible has always struck me as weirdly pragmatic compared to much of the bible, but also fascinated me as an often upsetting glimpse of society at the time of the bible’s writing. The same chapter details the procedure by which it is allowable to marry a beautiful woman of your enemies whom you have taken captive (shave her head, trim her nails… after she has lived in your house and mourned her father and mother for a full month… she shall be your wife), whereas the next chapter switches to construction law, instructing that if you build a new house, you must “make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof”.

Written for soprano, mezzo, and violin, the music was recorded binaurally for online viewing with headphones.

Director of Photography: Tegid Cartwright
Camera Assistant: Marika Kochiashvili
Colourist: Megan Lee at etc.colour

Cast: William Marsey, Clémence Rauch, Dave Sylvester, Josephine Stephenson
Musicians: Angharad Lyddon, Mimi Doulton, Amy Tress
Conductor: Finnegan Downie Dear
Sound Engineer: Tom Parnell