Travelogue I: Falling Into Language
Travelogue I: Falling Into Language
“Eve yearns to return to a primordial state when the misunderstandings caused by words no longer stand between her and the rest of creation. So she unnames all the animals, from the sea otters to the bees. When she’s done, she marvels on how they feel ‘far closer than when their names had stood between myself and them like a clear barrier.” - referencing the Ursula K. Le Guin short story “She Unnames Them”
In Falling into Language: A Travelogue, Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees creates a mythical travelogue exploring a shared cosmic ancestry that connects us beyond the constraints of spoken and written language. TwoTrees’ immersive installation of paintings, soundscapes, and video feature contemporary vocables (a sequence of sounds and syllables without literal meaning) created in collaboration with musicians from Vermont, India and Japan. TwoTrees describes Falling into Language: A Travelogue as a visual manifestation of her experience engaging with ceremonial vocables that are deeply rooted in the oral tradition of her mixed Native American and African heritage.
The Artist recognizes the following musicians for their collaboration in the creation of Falling into Language: A Travelogue: Gideon Crevoshay, Yuji Nakagawa, Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy, Shruthi Veena Vishnawanth, Heidi Wilson and the viewers who participated in vocable workshops over the course of the installation.
Beginning her exploration through automatic writing, drawings, paintings and then sound, TwoTrees discovered a new, creative route to an unseen language – ultimately finding herself falling into a language that defied differentiation or separation. Combining score and imagery to create an immersive environment of visual vocables, Falling into Language: A Travelogue creates a moving visual manifestation of our shared cosmic ancestry beyond the constraints of language.
Falling Into Language: A Travelogue, premiered at BCA CENTER June 4 — October 9, 2021. For the next step in the Travelogue journey TwoTrees is embarking on a project with Zen Publications, a well known publisher of spiritual books. She returns to India to research and begin the writing Dec 2021-April 2022. The book, tentatively titled “From Black Elk to Kabir”, will be an intimate story of the spiritual quest which guided TwoTrees’ journey across cosmologies and continents and inspired the creation of the Travelogue Project and its continuing iterations.
The soundscapes
Artist Talk: Kaylynn Sullivan TwoTrees: Falling into Language: A Travelogue
Gallery Guide
3D virtual gallery tour
“That room did not make me think ‘Oh, I’m looking at Kaylynn’s work’, but gave me the sense that I was being transported to some other place, that was only peripherally connected to you as an individual. Like it was something you unearthed…and were then dwarfed by.”
– Kevin Donegan, Artist
“This experience moved me to tears at one point; overwhelmed by the variety, the beauty, the jarring aspects; ALL of this in its entirety in 18 minutes - like a mini life experience through sound and visuals.”
-Parvati
“It was an interstellar to a cellular journey to and through familiar and unknown landscapes among the stars to the depth of the oceans and the core of the great mother.”
- Carolyn Hartness
“Last month, I finally took in Travelogue - an experience that moved me deeply into my core and into a level of both connection and yearning that I have not experienced... It awakened my own awakenings to the power of unnaming, of - only briefly - dropping into the great mystery of unity and shared mystery. Thank you from the depth of my heart for your work.”
-G
“Between the textures of the map fragments, the muted colors, the vaguely archaic feel, and the sense that words might still linger even when humanity is out of the picture, really resonated with me…..”
- Anonymous
“It felt to have come from a place before and after life, beyond the visible and audible spectrums, as if from the womb of the universe. There was a sense of creation swirling around, the forces, waves and energies making together. It took me into the depths, felt as if I was falling higher and higher. As if the music was leading me to silence. And stillness. To a place beyond fear. To peace. Beyond the reign of the clock and time. I felt connected. Whole. Free. Healed. There was a sense of being in space and interstellar orbits, witnessing the birth of life. In harmony. Where I could breathe without air. Exist beyond life. Quite surreal.”
- A
“What is language but a confluence of sounds & gestures emanating from the body? Your music is both lulling & awakening, primordial & new. As such, my mind was freed to just be.”
– Lauren
“What A ride it was. I felt transported into a different universe while sitting, so fully immersed into the visuals and soundscape. It almost felt like a trip into the inner portals of my subconscious.”
-JB
“All the artists who have created these marvellous sound scapes and dreams and spaces and music. Ethereal, Surreal. It is special to be part of this creation.”
-Bindhumalini
“Felt like the universe rolling through and over me.... Pulsing, vibrating, teaming with life... Beyond mere words... Rich deep language connecting and communicating from the insides of an oyster shell to the cosmos above and below... Too Beautiful for just words and a part of us all...”
- Ben
“Kaylynn peels off layers of the heavens, earth, caves + ocean. Loved it. Beautiful and the sounds are resonating and ancient.”
- Anonymous
“It felt haunting, it captured a fragmented, up close/microscopic world.”
– Jillian
“Beautiful. Made me think about the micro/macro and the tiny universes in things – mark making as inherent?”
- Anonymous
“I love the music that plays in the room, it really gives the whole exhibit a 3 dimensional vibe that adds to the art.”
- Anonymous
EVENTS
For the next step in the Travelogue journey TwoTrees is embarking on a project with Zen Publications, a well known publisher of spiritual books based in Mumbai, India. She returns to India to research and begin the writing Dec 2021-April 2022. The book, tentatively titled “From Black Elk to Kabir”, will be an intimate story of the spiritual quest which guided TwoTrees’ journey across cosmologies and continents and inspired the creation of the Travelogue Project and its continuing iterations.
PEOPLE
COLLABORATIONS
PARTNERS
LOCATION
This is a Global project, grounded in the US and India.