Two hands holding a variety of microphones scrape, scratch, pinch and poke eleven participants poker-faced in front of the camera.

Poker explores the relation between. It explores specifically the import of the face in framing relationships. The relation is performed at a number of levels, the performer’s hands activate the taciturn faces, they explore and sound them; the surface of the face is inscribed with the depth of the relation between the two involved in the performance—a depth measured by awkwardness. The viewer, in turn, is faced by this configured yet disfigured, alienated yet intimate exchange.

to face -face as a verb, a facing in touch, in sound... ocular proximity, closeupsoclose, playing the face, testing the haptic... loudyourface, loudface... noise facials... fissures in the relation—no longer face to face, but somewhere in between being caressed and prodded... poker face—no longer site of expression but site of being expressed... poker, wrinkler, scratcher, prickler, tickler... to hear the face (to make the face), wrinkle the face in sound... touching the loud gaze... scratch, slide, prick, tickle, rub... rhythm the face, loudlooks, noisylooks... louding the face...

Participants:
Katie Bethune-Leamen, Crys Cole, Michel F. Côté, Anni Lawrence, Eric Letourneau, Jonathan Parent, Leila Pourtavaf, Sam Shalabi, Marie-Douce St-Jacques, Alexandre St-Onge, Roger Tellier-Craig.