It is impossible to credit this video poem with a single creator as it exists in a network of collaboration. Light is a hybrid adaptation of Klara du Plessis’ narrative long poem, Hell Light Flesh (Palimpsest Press, 2020). It is set to music by composer Jimmie LeBlanc and directed as film by Michael Hidetoshi Mori. While the work as a whole runs 45-minutes—recently premiered at the International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), March 2023—and develops a psychological web between mother and daughter in both past and present, it also hinges on a legacy of violence within the home space, one which is distinguished from, overlaps and frays with the oasis and pleasure of artmaking. In this brief excerpt, soprano Xin Wang perforates voice through a clipped rhythm of melodic arcs and recitation, offering a coexistent weave of darkness and light.

—Klara du Plessis

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excerpt from Light

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In his compositions, Jimmie LeBlanc (he/him) explores how music can be thought of in terms of capturing forces and the logic of sensation. Based on concepts such as performative figure and texture, his approach aims at creating energetic streams and musical situations as expressions of—and stemming from—instrumental actions. Jimmie LeBlanc was the recipient of the third prize at the Lutoslawski Award 2008, and of the Canada Arts Council Jules-Léger Prize (2009) for his work L’Espace intérieur du monde. His music has been performed by Ensemble Contrechamps, Esprit Orchestra, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Quatuor Bozzini, Continuum Ensemble, and Camerata Aberta. His theoretical research and publications are investigating music semiotics and aesthetics, and he teaches composition at Université de Montréal.