Herakles

About

To me, weightlifting seems a particularly strange occupation. The enormous stress that the lifters place on their bodies and their semiconscious reactions to this stress in the form of grunting, spitting, clenching and howling, is both intriguing and repulsive. Recordings of these sounds, and sounds generated from these recordings make up part of this piece. Other sounds come from recordings of squash games, an activity closely related to weightlifting as most gyms have squash courts, but the game is completely different in terms of physical effort verses outcome. Squash sounds seem to move and dance around quickly and effortlessly while weightlifting sounds are slow and generated only by extreme effort. On one level, this piece is about physical effort and the odd characters who seek physical perfection.