Visible and Crimson

Before we can construct a new post-COVID future from the ruins we have been left with, I strongly believe we need to recognize the impact of the ambiguous loss we have all experienced during the pandemic. Visible and Crimson seeks to recognize the experience of ambiguous loss to counter the statistic-based records of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aug 30, 2021

Freya Powell, Visible and Crimson, 2021. Courtesy the artist.

Created through a participatory process the interactive digital book will address the permanent state of grieving we have been living in since the start of the pandemic. Over the course of the residency, I will create a sound work that explores the lamenting nature of Sophocles’ Elektra. Utilizing the voice as the medium I will work with a soprano singer to test pitch, tone, pacing, and silence from operatic singing to theatrical utterances to express, as Elektra, the cycle of grief we are all experiencing. These vocal experimentations will be published online and on the radio to offer a communal space to heal from the frozen grief of ambiguous loss we have globally experienced. This aural iteration is connected to an upcoming performance I cannot not grieve: CRY SHOUT SCREAM SING that will take place this year in New York City.

Freya Powell has presented solo shows at Art in General (NY), Herron School of Art, Indianapolis, IN, and Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona, Spain. She has participated in group shows at EFA Project Space (NY), Queens Museum (NY), Socrates Sculpture Park, (NY), #1 Cartagena: the First International Biennale of Art, Cartagena de India, Colombia, and the Bronx Museum, (NY), among others. Recently, she was awarded a residency at MoMA PS1 and a grant from the Queens Council on the Arts.