WHILE THE EARTH GETS LARGE AND LOUD

2025

Video, 1 minute 55 seconds

While the Earth Gets Large and Loud is an echolalic exploration of resistance and discovery. The video layers the artist’s voice, repeating words and phrases from the lyrics of 14 different musical artists—echoing language heard from others as a form of communication. This repetition creates a shared resonance, while the visuals reveal personal memories and identities that have shaped the artist’s creative process. Echolalia, often seen as a limited or ineffective form of communication, especially for autistic individuals, has historically been punished or restricted, considered less valuable than traditional verbal expression. In this work, the artist reclaims echolalia to challenge conventional knowledge systems and give voice to the overlooked.

The piece integrates three postcolonial resistance strategies—embedded, antagonistic, and vulnerable. By engaging with the video, viewers are encouraged to reflect on how alternative forms of communication and knowledge can reshape understanding, challenge established norms and emphasize the power of visual knowledge.

LYRICS: (Link to Playlist)

While the Earth gets large and loud (Signal by Sylvan Esso)

Pails of pastel blue engulf my days (Flaws in Our Design by ODESZA and Yellow House)

Towers to the skies, an academy of lies (I am Easy to Find by The National)

And I’m running out of words (Broken by Patrick Watson)

You don’t know what it’s like to be around you (Oblivions by The National)

Anything you ever did was strictly by design (Leave a Trace by CHVRCHES)

The storm you bring (Where is Her Head by The National)

It only gets louder with time (Something’s Rattling (Cowpoke) by Ben Gibbard)

Can’t stay here anymore (Sea of Love by The National)

I’m standing at the station (22 (OVER S∞∞N) by Bon Iver)

Looking for the great escape (The Great Escape by Patrick Watson)

I’ll find my own way back, back to the silence (Afterglow by CHVRCHES)

Where do I belong, where do I belong, where do I belong? (Jacaranda by Blind Pilot)

Dust swirls in strange light (Dust Swirls in Strange Light by The National)

It’s like a tide in a city lifts me and carries me around (Oblivions by The National)

It’s a signal in the noise (Signal by Sylvan Esso)

Light is all over us (Clearest Blue by CHVRCHES)

I can hear, I can hear (Naeem by Bon Iver)

If you wanna be alone, come with me (Rylan by The National)

I’ve been waiting forever (Waiting Forever by ODESZA and Yellow House)

I dipped my hands into the sea (Drifters by Patrick Watson)

Currents pull me in (Seaweed Song by Passion Pit)

Underwater you’re almost free (Rylan by The National)

I pulled the ocean over me (Drifters by Patrick Watson)

Just let the water win (Seaweed Song by Passion Pit)

Give your tears (Wait by M83)

They’re spilling over me, filling my insides (Empty Threat by CHVRCHES)

The storm, the blackout, the quiet sea (So Far So Fast by The National)

Dissolving the memories I try to hide (Dissolving by Hannah Cohen)

Shattered in paint (Faith by Bon Iver)

Stay under the tide (Under the Tide by CHVRCHES)

Learning to lie here in the quiet light (Quiet Light by The National)

There are rocks in the ground, there are seeds in my hand (Pocket Knife by Blind Pilot)

All around me I can hear em (Naeem by Bon Iver)

Like a seed in the ground (Lonely Lonely by Feist)

All you’ll be is sound (Sound by Sylvan Esso)

Flash hope (Holyfields, by Bon Iver)

So I can speak into the silence (22 (OVER S∞∞N) by Bon Iver)

Shaped by the clearest blue (Clearest Blue by CHVRCHES)

I’m an Astuary King (8 (circle) by Bon Iver) 

Spread my arms and plant my roots (Jacaranda by Blind Pilot)

I will wipe the salt off of my skin (Leave a Trace by CHVRCHES)

Unburdened and becoming (8 (circle) by Bon Iver)

All you’ll feel is sound (Sound by Sylvan Esso)