Artist Terence Koh Chants Names Of Orlando Victims Into Outer Space

On June 12, 2016, a gunman opened fire at a queer nightclub in Orlando, Florida, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others. The massacre was the deadliest shooting in United States history. In the days since, countless individuals have grieved the young, innocent and beautiful lives cruelly cut short through this act of hate and questioned a world in which such a sickening gesture of inhumanity could occur, again and again.

“I was talking to someone about how, as artists, we are responsible, we have to do something,” artist Terence Koh explained in an interview with The Huffington Post. He speaks softly and silvery, his voice one that immediately makes you want to temper your own in response. “He said back to me, ‘We are all responsible.’”

On the evening of June 23, Koh performed a tribute to the victims of the Orlando massacre in the form of a chanting ceremony. Inspired by a ritual he witnessed at a Buddhist monastery, the Chinese-Canadian artist chanted the names of the 49 victims inside a bee chapel, a space in his ongoing exhibition at Andrew Edlin Gallery in New York. The chapel was connected to a microphone that linked to an antenna, which transmitted the sounds that moved through it into outer space, spreading Koh’s message of love into the universe. (Read more here.)