JULIA PAGE ::::

Begun in 2006, Julia Page’s Oration series interprets political speeches through music. Iterations have included speeches by such US senators as Robert Byrd (on the Port Security Bill), Hillary Clinton (“Checklist for Change”), and Bill Frist (“Morning Business”). Using a variety of software, the audio of the speeches is converted, mapping the pitch, duration, and velocity of the speaker’s voices. The result is a range of avant-garde tracks that invoke a kind of free jazz—a subliminal way to internalize oratorical rhetoric, Oratory: A Conversation with Angela Davis, January 1972 being exemplary in this respect. Created for We Remember the Sun, it comprises an excerpt from an interview of Angela Davis, awaiting trial in a Palo Alto jail, by Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church. Williams begins the conversation by asking, “What do you see as the meaning of the term revolutionary?”

Page uses video, sculpture, and photography to explore connections between culture, politics, and media. She has recently exhibited at the Mills College Art Museum in Oakland; Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery in Los Angeles; and Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. She has taught video art and sculpture at the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Santa Cruz.