In this single channel audio work, six a capella singers perform a political U-turn: A broken promise, which is typically viewed as the biggest failure in British Parliament. Here the U-turn is abstracted into a stuttering series of dissonant coughs, ummms, and urrrrrs that find momentary harmony in a triumphantly melodic climax, only to collapse back into silence and a refrain of the cycle of indecisions.
Spooner first conceived this work in 2013 in response to a programmatic volte-face by Michael Gove, the British education minister at the time (who recently made a comeback as a prominent leader of the Leave campaign in the Brexit referendum). Spooner’s work resonates across different historical points in time, as an inquiry into human communication, specifically the public or technical staging of language, along with questions about the management of life through political leadership and the parameters for success.
