Metaméleia: The Remorse of Millennial Orestes, 2020
μεταμέλεια (metaméleia): repentance /rɪˈpɛnt(ə)ns/ noun:
the action of repenting; sincere regret or remorse.
Metaméleia: The Remorse of Millennial Orestes
i. Alekto, the unnamable
ii. Tisiphone, the vengeful destruction
iii. Megaera, the grudging
iv. Orestes, the millennial
In Greek Mythology, legend says Orestes killed her mother, Clytemnestra, to seek revenge on her for murdering his father, Agamemnon. An 1862 painting by William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Orestes Pursued by the Furies, also fondly referred to in the art world as The Remorse of Orestes, a terrified figure of Orestes is depicted being belittled, tormented, and humiliated by The Erinyes, aka. The Furies. As stated in Britannica: “Furies, Greek Erinyes, also called Eumenides, in Greco-Roman mythology, are the chthonic goddesses of vengeance.” It is often debated whether they are monsters or goddesses. In Homer’s Iliad, the Furies can prevent an individual from using their reason and so lead them to unusual and stupid acts. In the Odyssey, Homer describes them as ‘Avenging Furies’. Although the number of the Erinyes is unknown, and variable; three of them are named and widely known: Alekto, the unnamable; Tisiphone, the vengeful destruction; and Megaera, the grudging.
If we turn our heads back to the present, Bill Viola, is a contemporary video artist often referred to as ‘the Rembrandt of the video age, and is internationally recognized as one of today’s leading artists. As stated in his biography within his official website, “he has been instrumental in the establishment of video as a vital form of contemporary art, and in so doing has helped to greatly expand its scope in terms of technology, content, and historical reach. Viola uses video to explore the phenomena of sense perception as an avenue to self-knowledge. His works focus on universal human experiences—birth, death, the unfolding of consciousness—and have roots in both Eastern and Western art as well as spiritual traditions, including Zen Buddhism, Islamic Sufism, and Christian mysticism. Using the inner language of subjective thoughts and collective memories, his videos communicate to a wide audience, allowing viewers to experience the work directly, and in their own personal way.”
Metaméleia: The Remorse of Millennial Orestes, is a video/sound installation, and an exploration created in an attempt to visualize how Bill Viola would have created an artwork if he was given the theme, remorse. It is composed of four channels of color video projection on walls in a large, dark room; accompanied by stereo sound for each projection. The names of the individual channels are influenced by the aforementioned painting and mythological characters.
Produced for GRA 501 Graduate Studio I, MFA in Media and Design Program at Bilkent University, 2020.
i. Alekto, the unnamable
ii. Tisiphone, the vengeful destruction
iii. Megaera, the grudging
iv. Orestes, the millennial
