Arkhe - Lost Canto
above: excerpt from Arkhe - Lost Canto, 2017 - 2024 [to hear the sound press the sound icon located in the lower right corner of the moving image]
Arkhe - Lost Canto
2017 - 2024
Digital film + sound composition
Duration: 13 minutes 24 seconds
Limited edition of 3 + 2 AP
CREDITS
Music/sound written and composed by Monika Weiss
Camera: Monika Weiss
Film/sound editing: Monika Weiss
Voice 1: Katie Beyers, Soprano, Alto
Voice 2: Ingrid Piazza, Mezzo Soprano
Percussion: Monika Weiss
Movement choreography by Monika Weiss
Movement performer 1: Anupama Kerongi
Movement performer 2: Monika Weiss
Text in English and Polish: Monika Weiss
Excerpts from Jan Kochanowski Treny (1583) translated from Polish to English by Adam Czerniawski and Donald Davie
Recording engineer: Jeff Allen
Sound mastering: Adam Hogan
Special thanks to the following institutions and individuals:
Foundation for the Study of Literature and Environment, FSLE India
Sikkim Government College, Tadong
Creative Music Foundation, Woodstock, New York
Anupama Kerongi
Dina Helal (In Memoriam)
Kurt Gottschalk
Artist Statement
I come from a land where strong connection to nature and a belief in spirits inhabiting natural elements was central to ancient Slavic peoples. Mountains were not just geographical places but potent symbols of power, spiritual presence, and the boundary between the mortal and spirit worlds.
In the Fall of 2017, I was filming on Kanchenjunga Mountain, in the Himalayas. The world's third-highest mountain, Kanchenjunga is part The Kingdom of Sikkim, once an independent monarchy, which was annexed by India in 1975. Many people in Sikkim still feel a sense of loss over their lost independence. The people who live there are mostly Buddhist. Parts of the mountain were not accessible to me, protected by the local army. When I returned to my New York home I discovered that my tapes were lost. They were found several years later, in 2024.
In the first sequence of the film, we see a close-up view of a woman’s face and torso. Wearing black veil and black gown she is almost still, her arms lifted up, her garments undulating in the wind. Behind her, we see prayer flags moving in the wind. In the Himalayan region prayer flags are hung in high places such as mountain passes, monasteries, and peaks to create a connection between the Earth and the sky and to allow the wind to carry blessings. Their symbols are released into the universe by the wind for the benefit of all beings. At some point my drawing made with resin, water and graphite appears montaged into the film.
In the second part of the film, we see views of the 2017 Sun Eclipse, which I filmed from a Brooklyn rooftop. In another moment in the film, I am kneeling onto the stones of a shallow creek Upstate New York, in a silent, solitary performance. In the third and last part of the film, the first protagonist reappears. Seen from afar, she kneels on the top of the Kanchenjunga Mountain, surrounded by trees and stones. Holding the black scarf, she is veiling and unveiling her face. Silently, slowly, she bows down, towards the Earth. Subtexts in English and Polish – the two languages I speak daily – appear throughout the film to indicate an inner dialogue, my conversation with the mountain.
In 2024 the film (Lost Canto) came together with my sound composition (Arkhe) which I just finished at the time. Arkhe is the last and sixth movement of a cycle of music titled Metamorphosis, devoted to the moment in which the mythological nymph Daphne self-transforms into a tree to avoid violence. The title of this 6th movement (Arkhe, Greek: ἀρχή) refers to the beginning, the origins. I wrote this part for two sopranos, to be sang without words, a capella. Each vocalist was recorded alone, with no prior rehearsal. I wanted to preserve the original emotion of the solitude experienced. Separately, I also recorded my bare hands hitting an iron vessel (an instrument I made), sonically resembling ancient drums.
