Her Voice

This sound-piece was made specifically for ‘Sequel: A Slade/Strang Collaboration’ which invited students from the Slade to interact with works from the Strang Print Room Collection.

Her Voice is an aural response to the print pictured below, courtesy of Strang Print Room Media Services, entitled Sheet of Nineteen Heads in Small Circles (c. 1530-40).

Listen to the sound piece here:

This work was inspired by Julia Kristeva’s writings on the semiotic and the female voice. The sound-piece is a vocal progression that starts with word and symbolic language, moves into non-verbal sounds and the semiotic, and finally culminates in song.

While making this piece, I was concerned with the articulation of the female I-voice over the he/him of the male subject and the frustration at the constant return to the latter. Is the female ‘I’ only possible to formulate as the ‘I’ of difference, the ‘I’ of the other? I took refuge in song, but again encountered the problematic ambiguity of the singing voice: fetishised object for pleasure or the consuming self-enjoyment of feminine jouissance? Despite its theoretical struggles, I hope that Her Voice retains an emotive impact and a refreshing intimacy.