Contemporary Arts

Mikhail KARIKIS and Uriel ORLOW

Karikis was born 1975 in Thessaloniki (Greece), based in London.
Orlow was born 1973 in Zurich (Switzerland), based in London.

Karikis initially studied architecture, but since then the scope of his work has become cross-genre, extending to incorporate fields such as audio, video, photography and performance. Karikis’s work in sound, video and performance emerges from his long-standing investigation of the human voice which he employs to explore notions of community, professional identity and human rights. His representative project 《Sounds from Beneath》 features aged mineworkers chorally recreating the sounds that they had heard in their colliery before it was closed down due to UK government policy. The miners recalled and sang the sounds of explosions, alarms, steam, and machinery, and their song is captured in this video work. In other words, human voices were used to bring the everyday work environment that the men had lost back to life. Orlow is known for his modular, multi-media installations and combine archival research with evocative visuals and sound. Orlow collaborated with Karikis to produce 《Sounds from Beneath》 because of his interest in the landscape as a place of memory and history.

  《Sounds from Beneath》2010-2011
courtesy of the artists
Aritist List