Pfui – Pish, Pshaw / Prr (excerpt) 2017

(Two channel video HD 20 min, PCAI)

Deals with the urgent business of toxic waste management. The work is loosely based on interviews with mr Theodosis Alifrangis, the longest-serving employee of Polyeco/EPE, a Greek toxic waste / oil spill response company.

For the last ten years Mr Theodosis has been stationed at the wreck of a cruise ship, which sunk in the deep waters of Santorini’s port. He has become the ship’s conscientious guardian, tending to the slow release of petrol and protecting the surrounding waters and marine life.

An eclectic sample of Mr Theodosis’ prolific VHS archive, unofficially filmed on his camcorder whilst on various call outs since the 1980’s, is presented here alongside footage created in Olde Wolbers’ studio, where model sets of cruise ship interiors, ferromagnetic mussels and molecular structures are covered in iridescently coloured dripping oils and filmed in tanks.
The work also features footage of sonar imaging attempts around the elusive, unsalvageable cruise ship, filmed in 2016 by both Olde Wolbers and Alifrangis on location in Santorini.

The fictional script is from an oil spill responder’s point of view and reveals his superstitious reason for filming; "Xematiasma", the Greek oil and water divination, where his camera wards off the evil eye whilst tending to major emergencies on a daily basis.

He expands into further musings around matter and spirit, ancient rituals for cleansing the sea, his love for shipwrecks and the mundane everyday reality of cleaning. Until narrative time seemingly starts reversing, playing with ideas of waste and permanence.

This fictional work’s title derives from a DH Lawrence letter in which the author abandoned language to express an onomatopoeic anger.