Heather Ross’s ‘All the Better to Hear You With’ explores the juxtaposition between the intrinsic societal integration of language in our daily lives with the individual discrepancies between how language is received, stored, processed, and spoken. 

Inspired by Kurt Schwitter’s perspective on written and spoken word, Ross uses her work to explore the idea of recreating bird-song, and focuses upon this as a medium that generates an experience in memory; this enhances the idea that language and sound, whilst experienced on a societal scale, is processed on an individual scale, each person having a slightly differing experience. A concentration on bird song also explores the idea of the mundane and the conscious; birdsong is a sound we are all accustomed to and so we register it everyday on an unconscious level. However, for some, birdsong is registered consciously, instead producing a significantly visceral reaction related to memory. It is this difference in response that Ross asks the audience to consider, alongside their own reaction.

Furthermore, Ross asks the audience to engage with the twelve printed cards, each showing a short, misspelled poem, allowing for a performance in which the audience, including myself, processes the written word and transforms it into spoken word. This participation enables Ross to enforce the surrounding themes of language and memory, as it engages the audience, and allows for a greater understanding. In addition to this, the aspect of play throughout the exhibition is mirrored through the title of ‘All the Better to Hear You With’ taken from Little Red Riding Hood. 

Ultimately, ‘All the Better to Hear You With’ is an exhibition concentrated on the often transient state of memory, and the conscious and unconscious recognition of language. It begs us to consider individual differences on a global scale, and to contemplate the grounds for such.

Rebecca