(audio)

Anonymous
Sheet of Nineteen Heads in Circle
pen and black ink with grey wash
between 1500 and 1550

Related UCL Art Collections Artwork
Sheet of Nineteen Heads in Small Circles (c. 1530-40)

Her Voice is an aural response to the print entitled: Sheet of Nineteen Heads in Small Circles (c. 1530-40) and 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

Patricia Delgado
Fine Art Media (First Year Undergraduate)