Linear Construction in Space No. 1 is a site-specific music-theatre piece designed specifically to happen at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts (Birmingham) as part of the activities accompanying the exhibition “Cornwall as Crucible”. This exhibition was curated around the Gabo sculpture that names the music-theatre piece, which at the time was recently acquired by the museum. Alongside Gabo’s work, it presented “art produced in and around St Ives from the 1930s to the 1960s”[40], considering “the relationships and networks between artists who lived and worked in Cornwall”[41]. This exhibition was displayed in an auxiliary room next to the main gallery.

As mentioned in 2.1.2.1.2 In response to Naum Gabo (...) and in 2.2.1.2 In response to Naum Gabo (...), the piece, in its first part (“Scene”), establishes a parallel between the rectangular frame structure of the sculpture and the rectangular disposition of the art gallery's rooms. Another parallel is established by considering the singer and her promenade as a representation of the nylon being threaded across the sculpture’s frame. The singer interacts with the different sections of the gallery, organised chronologically, questioning the philosophical ideas behind the pieces displayed in the art gallery with the aesthetic ideas of Gabo, present in his sculpture. The echoes coming from the instruments placed in the different rooms not only represent the continuous threading of the sculpture, but also metaphorically link the art of the different eras with Gabo’s work. On top of these micro-structural associations, on a macro-structural, level this section works as a general contextualisation of the new sculpture and the ideas behind it in relation to the works of the permanent collection.

Similarly, in its second part, “Variation”, the piece responds to the specific space where the “Cornwall as Crucible” exhibition was displayed. The performance happens in front of the sculpture in the middle of the room, stressing the mutual influence of this community of artists. The piece uses the same original musical material, but in this case modified in response to the variations Naum Gabo made of the same sculpture[42]. Similarly to him, I kept only the elements I considered essential: those related to the line (trumpet and flute), the sound of the sculpture (violin), and its structure (voice), that also engaged closely with the voice. The voice part is informed by the rearrangement of a print of Gabo’s sculpture reconverted into a jigsaw, which marks the use of singing or spoken voice and affects the musical response of the ensemble. This was influenced by an artwork in the exhibition, Barbara Hepworth’s study “Oval Form with Strings” (1960), which Roxanne and I found very closely related to Gabo’s sculpture[43]. Therefore, this second part of the work focuses on the space of the exhibition and the artworks that accompany the sculpture, contextualising it and establishing links with the works of his contemporaries.

Example #8

Performance of "Variation" in the space where the exhibition "Cornwall as Crucible" was displayed. The singer responds to the sculpture as marked in the voice score. The ensemble responds to the singer's sung and recited material.

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