Interview with Ellye Van Grieken of Silver-Tongue Collective
/Excerpt copied below:
“Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with Ellye Van Grieken (she/her), the creative producer of Silver-Tongue, about their new work, Devil Fish, premiering on the 7th of February as part of Resolution Festival at The Place.
I started us off with a discussion of the Silver-Tongue’s beginning (mostly because I really enjoy the creative names for their collective and piece). Van Grieken explained that Silver-Tongue was established back in 2020 as “a collective of story makers that give voice to tales which aren’t usually heard.” Their work has since developed through multi-medium collaborations that build thought-provoking works about whatever takes their interest. Devil Fish grew from Van Grieken’s research conducted at the Royal College of Art into the performance of mermaids in 19th century Britain, a time when ideas of evolution, scientific discoveries and explorations of the ocean were prevalent in society.
The ‘Devil Fish’ in their work actually refers to octopuses (not mermaids) that upon their discovery were fished, captured and sensationalized in pop-up aquariums and side-shows. However, people weren’t attending these events to marvel at the octopus’s many tentacles or learn about their fascinating skills of adaptation. To build the crowds (and profits), the octopuses were marketed as terrifying, fanged blood-sucking monsters. Misinformation engulfed the 8-tentacled spectacle as society flocked to gawk at the captive creature, now in their minds, a terrifying monster.”