Sekai Machache – Hypnagogia Glossolalia

Visual Artist and Curator Sekai Machache is responding to Edwin Morgan’s translation work, using this invitation as an opportunity to engage with her mother tongue, Shona and Gaelic. ‘It is through language and culture that we are able to share our thoughts, our ideas and our visions for the future. In these times of global uncertainty and limited movement due to the devastating impact of a pandemic it feels even more important to find ways to bridge the gap, to reach across language and break down those barriers of understanding.’

Hypnagogia Glossolalia: 

Hypnagogia – The state between sleeping and waking characterised by feelings of drowsiness, lucid dreams, spontaneous creative inspiration, imaginative experience and sleep paralysis.

Glossolalia – the phenomenon of speaking in an unknown language, especially in religious worship. Practiced in many spiritual and ritual traditions.

The film is composed of several spoken word poetry pieces narrated in both Gaelic and Shona (zezuru dialect) with dance performance by dancer and choreographer Divine Tasinda. Working with the image of the Bateleur Eagle, a now endangered species, defined as the original inspiration for the Zimbabwe bird. The bird is a symbol, a soapstone totem, a spiritual artefact. the national emblem of Zimbabwe it is endemic to Africa and small parts of Arabia. ‘Bateleur‘ is French for ‘street performer’. This work traverses the personal and universal interrogating the notion of self and romantic ideas of the incorporeal Other.

Video and PDF document of translations are available to view below.

Credits:
Gaelic narration by Cass Ezeji. 
Gaelic Translation by Robbie MacLeod.
Shona narration and translation by Gillian Mutanga. 
Video Editing by Léa Molinier.
Dance, Choreography and Performance by Divine Tasinda
Film, Make-up, Costumes, Photography, Videography, Sound and Writing by Sekai Machache.