About the work

This is a creature, which is part human, part animal, part spirit and it is singing while swirling towards all directions.

The characters I create are most often manifested through live performances, but they always come to life first through drawings and sketches. I like to think that a drawing can be as alive and animated as a living being would be upon face-to-face encounter.

I am deeply interested in the power of the use of the voice and what I call haunting presences.

I believe there is a strong resonance in the recorded and the singing voice, as well as in silence, stillness and pauses. When that is communicated through a living person – with the use of lip-syncing in my performances – that resonance becomes even stronger, kind of undeniable. In this work, I want to communicate this resonance through the moment where the creature passionately sings and tosses itself around, able to reach the heights of the skies and the depths of the seas, forever suspended in its expansion.

Date and country of birth

1983, GR

About the artist

Born 1983 Thessaloniki, Fani Parali lives and works in London. Graduated from BA Sculpture at Camberwell College of Arts (2014); and Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at Royal Academy Schools (2017).

Parali works across sound, performance, sculpture, painting, large-scale installation, drawing and moving image. Parali’s collaborative live practice is focused on the formulation of identity beyond the body’s limited presence; creating theatrical encounters in which sound and form are choreographed to create immersive and intimate scenes of habitation, directed movement and ethereal soundscapes.

Selected solo and group exhibitions include AONYX and DREPAN & THE MINDERS OF THE WARM, Southwark Park Galleries, London (2020); The Terrace of Lungs, Zabludowicz Collection, London (2019); Hyper Mesh, Assembly Point, London (2019); Arc, Herrick Gallery, London (2018); The Creatures, Chalton Gallery, London (2018); Chumming, The Pipe Factory, part of Glasgow International Festival (2018); Bearing Liability, Strange Cargo Gallery, Folkestone (2017); RA Schools Show 2017, Royal Academy Schools, London (2017); Gender, Identity and Material, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017); MONO7, Courtyard Theatre, London (2017); Oral Rinse 2, Waterloo Action Centre, London (2016); Dark Water, Southwark Park Galleries, London (2016); and A COOL DRINK TO CHEEK, Plazaplaza, London (2014).

Awards include Henry Moore Institute Fund Award (2020); Arts Council National Lottery Project Grant (2020); and Studiomakers Prize, by Outset and Tiffany and Co (2017).