The Grief of Electra

The Grief of Electra is a video an sound installation commissioned by Supernormal. The work was exhibited at Supernormal festival in 2017 at Braziers park.

Filmed throughout the ancient settlement of Ano on the island of Syros (Greece) the installation sets up a conversation between the visual and the aural. Conceptualizing the architecture of Ano as a labyrinth of Pythagorean screens the film attempts to highlight the acousmatic character of this unique environment. Played simultaneously with the film are three reel-to-reel recordings. Facing the screen they act as a symbolic chorus interacting with the moving images in front of them and overlapping with each other. Each tape recording possesses a collage of material that continuously weaves in and out of each other. Interested in non-symbolic utterance, the paralinguistic and erotic’s of the voice, each recording is possessed by a different voice or set of voices that in some way inhabit these themes. Working with artist and writer Ionna Gerakadi, the central player discusses the story of Sophocles ‘Electra’. Gerakadi focuses on the voice of Electra explaining her voice as one of grief and lament. Electra’s despair is made audible via her voice, yet these utterances sit outside of symbolic language. Sitting aside this player the further two recordings play a composition of material extracted from the non-symbolic utterances of backing singers throughout the late 1950’s and 1960s. Taken from what is understood to be the ‘girl group’ era these figures largely remained unknown and named only via their group moniker. Often made to perform non-symbolic ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ these voices remain somehow outside of language yet able to perform emotion. As the chorus of these voices dip in and out of sync they are both a response and reflection of Electra’s own voice. As the subjects of these voices remain visually out of reach the film highlights the ‘unknowability’ of this chorus.