Contaminated Soil - Theodore Garoufalis

"Contaminated Soil" is an art/music video that explores themes of spiritual frustration by lack of connection to ancestral and nature wisdom due to consequence of colonialism. The video tells of these frustrations through a non-linear looping visual presentation of moving pictures made up of found footage, and poetic commentary through song.

Footage of trees, fields, and flowers- opening and closing in sped up motion, layered over with moving patterns, and recurring images of two young girls brushing their hair while looking to the viewer as though they were the mirror become less serene and more-so eerie and haunting when matched with the harsh-spoken delivery of the lyrics and dissonant melodic folk music. The colour palate and font of the typed lyrics that layer over the images out of synch of when they're sung make this video feel as though it were constructed in the 1970s or late 1960s in accordance with the psychedelic folk and eerie horror of these times.

As stated, the lyrics lift heavy, yet restrained, emotions as commenting on the rootless nature of post-colonial spiritualism. "All the white witches making magic spells, but they use salt for circles, and they do it in the Earth! and now nothing grows" is a comment on the mislead attempts many of us make when meaning to connect to the magic of spirit and nature. We have stripped our culture to minimalism and a united definition of white-ness in order to assimilate, and along the way have lost the wisdom of our elders, and cultures of our ancestors, of whom knew how to work with the Earth and listen to Her wisdom. We now resort to buying into the trending appropriated interpretations of magic and laws of attraction, alas, practices contaminated by the rotten roots of the white supremacist culture so ingrained within us. Therefore, the singer's frustration is not just towards our contaminated culture, but as well towards the lack of known ethical direction for finding spirit altogether.

Spanning just over 2 minutes in duration, the film and song reach no true conclusion for the singer, nor the two girls brushing their har. The visual repetition varies slightly, though many of the core visual content remain throughout the video. Although the two girls are initially displayed in a distorted and warped manner in alignment with the aesthetics of the video as a whole, as the video progresses they become more and more alternated and distorted. The pacing of the visuals in speed and playback (especially with the footage of the girls), act as punctuation to the singer's lyrics; they either soften or exclaim the harsh spoken words, or exhaust, and restrain the temper of the plucked strings and sung poetry. Following common folk music structure, the songs' composition is repetitive and the climax expresses itself not through a bridge nor breakdown, but through the elevated emotional frustration displayed through in the singer's voice as they themself are seemingly exasperated by needing to repeat themselves to no end.

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