Ja, Ja, Ja, Ne, Ne, Ne began when Wantanee played Joseph Beuys’ sound piece of the same title to her African Grey parrot, Beuys. The original recording, an insistent sequence of “yes” and “no” spoken in a controlled, mechanical rhythm, establishes a human-centred structure of affirmation and refusal. When the parrot later vocalised the phrase, the work shifted away from its source.
Spoken by another species, the utterance loses its conceptual stability. Beuys’ timing, emphasis, and tonal variations disrupt the binary logic of the original recording, producing a form of expression that is neither replicable nor predictable. Her vocalisation moves between learned sound and autonomous response, unsettling distinctions between imitation, intention, and communication.
The work displaces the authority of the original without functioning as reenactment. As the phrase passes through another intelligence and sensorium, its meaning becomes contingent and open-ended. The piece reveals the fragility of language and challenges assumptions about authorship, creating a space where expression is continually renegotiated across species.