Voicing Silence

Voicing Silence is a project created by lead artist Lou Chapelle and commissioned by Leeds University.

A number of creatives including artists, poets, choreographers and musicians explored together the ever present topic of extinction. Working with refugees and asylum seekers, community groups within the Liverpool City region Lou created a double hologram projection using movement, sculpture, written word and music to convey the different experiences of extinction. From the decline of the worlds of fauna and flora to the social losses of different communities and the extinctions within our own lives.

Rachael Prime worked to help develop the visual aspects of the project focusing on extinct flora and culturally symbolic flowers from workshop attendees. Such as a type of “inverted tulip” from Iran named Fritillaria Imperialis which (while grows plentifully in monoculture farming environments) are on the endangered list, rarely found growing naturally in the wild. Similar to the native flower in the UK, Snake's Head Fritillary from the same family, is also on the endangered list. Using paper scuplture techniques Rachael developed scuplutres and props for the final projection. Exploring the different cultures, stories and own thoughts on the sometime overwhelming topic of extinction brought forward by the workshop participants, collatinging them together with Lou Chapelle.

For more information about the project please visit Lou Chapelle page for Voicing Silence.

http://www.louchapelle.com/work/voicing-silence-2/