To Your Hands is a multimedia installation that explores the cultural complexities of Cyprus, a nation divided since the Turkish invasion in 1974. It transcends the usual narratives of division and conflict, focusing instead on the shared cultural practices of the island’s Greek-speaking Christian and Turkish-speaking Muslim communities.

Setting language and religion aside and turning the focus away from the history of pain and division, To Your Hands explores the unifying aspects of Cypriot culture through strong similarities of culinary and artisan practices on both sides of the island.

The centerpiece of the installation comprises two screens in a room, positioned back-to-back, each displaying its own 40-minute loop of collected footage and animations by Mouyis. These visuals showcase Cypriots from both sides of the divide engaged in unique culinary and artisan activities characteristic of Cypriot culture. The ambiguity of the footage, deliberately obscuring which side of the island it depicts, coupled with smeared paint on the screens, encourages viewers to move between screens to piece together the complete narrative. Mouyis’s hand-painted frames lining the room symbolize the repetitive labor inherent in cultural preservation.

The audio component I developed for this installation builds on the algorithmic approach employed in my composition Field Modes, but with distinct adaptations tailored to this context. The audio is a compilation of field recordings from various Cypriot environments – a goat farm, a halloumi cheese factory, a veranda where a woman makes a special kind of lace, among others. These recordings are manipulated and collaged across the stereo field, creating an exaggerated sonic fingerprint of each location.

Leveraging a Max patch designed for frequency analysis, I supplemented these sounds with textures from a Eurorack synthesizer that harmonize with the field recordings. The compositional approach varied with each environment depicted in the video. In some segments, pitches were quantized to diatonic scales for a more consonant effect, while in others, they modulated a bandpass filter, relying more on the field recordings to create tonal movement.

The result is an immersive audio experience that connects audiences to Cypriot locales without favoring the musical or linguistic elements of either community. To Your Hands thus offers a sonically rich, visually engaging interpretation of Cypriot culture that emphasizes unity and shared heritage.