Mimi Cabell

Ballad

Work in progress

Ballad is an exploration of the banality of the language used in popular culture, and the ways in which sincerity and intimacy are represented and performed. In Ballad,the artist asks her parents to record themselves singing popular ballads of support; songs that in contemporary culture, and in the absence of other forms of communication, stand in as surrogates for the communication of love, support, and intimacy. In its attempt to “speak” to everyone, the language in these songs is rendered vapid and banal – it means nothing at all. In Ballad, the trouble occurs in the schism between the genuine enthusiasm of those performing, and the meaningless words that are being sung.