Provocation
Language reveals something about our perception of reality — even determines it. With new words, could one communicate new ideas? What additional realms of feeling could be inhabited?
Would having a new word for a feeling make you feel it more?
We believe language is learned the way food is tasted; a web of connotations and associations surrounds each word.
Process
For this performance, Cosmophage Collective invented five new words for the English language. Each word was shared with guests through dishes, creating a series of edible mnemonics. Guests consumed and digested each word, learning it, interpreting it, and using it into the future.
Filmmaker Allegra Oxborough captured staged and live versions of the performances, then used sonic and visual artifacts to compose this video interpretation of the work.
Nejamais
[neyzh-jah-mey]
Nejamais is the recognition of how much you have changed when you
re-encounter something or someone previously lost.
Cracusus
[krak-uh-suh s]
The differential between an edible object’s exterior crispness and interior softness.
Sollos
[soh-lohz]
The state of fully blossoming into oneself. A chapter of flourishing in full acknowledgement of who you are.
To be in the prime of one’s own becoming.
Surpleu
[sur-ploo]
The desire to be fully engulfed in or doused by a flavor. A feeling so intense one can even picture oneself bathing in it.
Saparsyne
[sap-pruh-seen]
The harmony of salty and sweet. Salt and sugar create one another, heighten each other, are in constant dialogue.
Credits
Direction
Jemma Rose Brown, Quang Nguyen, and Jimmy Tran
Menu
Jimmy Tran
Embodying the Words
Cracusus
Amanda Saviñón
Nejamais
Dan Iwrey
Saprasyne
Sophie Davidson
Sollos
Jerome Ells
Surpleu
Jemma Rose Brown and Jimmy Tran
Special Gratitude
To Future Space for giving this work a home: Dave Rife, Edward Sturtevant, Matt Le-Khac and Rich Watts.
To Starbright NYC for satisfying our surpleu with ample rose petals.
Design
Simonetta Nieto
Photographers
Roy Baizan
Victor Garzon
Videographers
Allegra Oxborough
Grant Cutler
Production support
Amber Genuske
Aramis Rosales
Bria Mariette
Franny Slote
Jennifer Simmons
Marcus Fleming
Megan Perry
Mitra Kaboli
Rebecca Chaisson
Suji Lee
Thank you.