Join us for a live performance of Hanna Tuulikki’s poetic SING SIGN: a close duet, (2015).

SING SIGN: a close duet is a performance and a two-channel film installation rooted in the city of Edinburgh.

Originally commissioned by Edinburgh Art Festival for their 2015 programme, The Improbable City, it was made in direct response to the narrow closes (a Scots term for ancient alleyways) that run from the Royal Mile, the main thoroughfare of the city’s Old Town. An enigmatic dialogue of wordless song and gesture takes place between two performers. Through layered references to Baroque music and British Sign Language, the city itself is transformed into a musical and choreographic score. SING SIGN: a close duet weaves a nuanced story shaped by voice, body and place,  reflecting on the ways in which the languages we have access to condition our experience of the world and of each other.

Tuulikki and her collaborator Daniel Padden will revisit this work, presenting a special live performance in New Arrivals: an exhibition that has celebrated recent acquisitions to the national collection over the past 14 months. SING SIGN: a close duet joined the collection in 2019 and is currently on display at Modern One until the 12 February 2023. 

Hanna Tuulikki is a visual artist, composer and performer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Her multidisciplinary projects combine imitation, vocalisation and gesture to unearth what she describes as the ‘essential relationship with the lore of places’, making visible – and audible – the often hidden or forgotten histories, knowledges and traditions carried within specific environments.

Getting here

The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art is located 15 minutes’ walk from Princes Street. It includes two buildings, Modern One and Modern Two, set in a beautiful sculpture park.