Performances with Cleveland Watkiss. 2020.

These performances came about from an instance when I saw Cleveland at the meltdown festival some years ago, performing a re envsioning of John Coltrane’s Love Supreme. His solo was incredible, and like other moments when I have heard music that I can see so clearly, I went about making contact to see if I could work with him. Luckily we connected and understood what each other were doing,  and it transpired he also had the experience of music coming to him as colours (Synaesthesia) This performance was in the lovely chapel at the House of St Barnabas in Soho, London as part of the Frieze Festival.

I was brought up in a church background and so I brought this awareness into this particular performance, in particular with the gestures I used.

I wrapped the inside of the chapel in polyurethane , so that it appeared that the colour was happening all around the voice spatially. It was wholly improvised , in the moment and dramatic. The palette constantly changed with Cleveland’s versatility of colour and texture. However, I used white a lot, which seemed to reflect and contrast with the purple light behind, and also worked as a kind of unspoken script casting a shadow against the lights. The performance was was set up so that I could surround the audience, and create a feeling of informality. I also invlolved gesture and my own body within the performance, painting myself, and also using two miked up canvas’ for sound.

More recently in 2020,  I continue to elaborate and work with Cleveland on a new performances with the Dancer and artist Lavinia Cascone. (See performance film). This performance contains magical elements when the act of painting becomes one with movement and connects with the voice through gestures.

2020

House of St Barnabas -Soho, London. Medium: Polyethylene (stretched) Lascaux Acrylics, Canvas (miked up) Live Electronics , Lighting. Chapel at House of St Barnabas.
  • Collaborators

    Cleveland Watkiss- voice and live electronics

    Haavard Helle -camerawork and lighting.

  • Musical Works

    Improvisation