Valerie Kesachekian October 12th, 2015 - 10:55 PM
PJ Harvey and photographer/filmmaker Seamus Murphy staged a multimedia performance called “The Hollow of the Hand“, at Royal Festival Hall in London. The performance featured poetry and new songs from Harvey along with photos and short films by Murphy.
“The Hollow of the Hand” is also the name of a new poetry book. The book features poems by Harvey and photographs by Murphy. The performance was divided into three parts, one for each place Harvey and Murphy visited between 2011 and 2014 that included Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Washington D.C.
Harvey was joined by longtime collaborator John Parish, along with Gallon Drunk’s James Johnston. Harvey debuted ten new songs including, “Chain of Keys”, “The Wheel”, “The Orange Monkey”, “Dollar Dollar”, “The Community of Hope”, “Homo Sappy Blues”, “Medicinals”, “Near the Memorials to Vietnam and Lincoln”, “River Anacostia”, and “The Ministry of Social Affairs”, which samples Jerry McCain & His Upstarts’ “That’s What They Want”. Harvey played guitar and keyboards. She then read the poems, “Dance on the Mountain”, “The Hand”, “An Initiation”, “The Glass”, “Dead Tanks”, “The First Shot”, “Begging Bowl”, “Talking to God”, “At the Air Base”, “To the Oldest Homosapiens”, and “3 a.m. Washington, D.C.”, along with others.
Videos from the performance were posted on Pitchfork.
