This second painting, For Here There is No Place, is an inversion of the Slow Air series. It is in fact a negative of the initial process. In response to this painting, I created two different recordings as a representation of its two halves. Firstly, I created an improvisation using sarode and loop pedal by sitting beneath the work. The recording is available opposite. Secondly, I decided to use an inversion of my original improvisation the Slow Air. Using a audio program called CHUCK, I manipulated the recording of my first improvisation and played over the top of that. I also used three lines of further processed sound using CHUCK. These three lines become more layered and textured as the piece progresses. You can hear some of my improvisation is reversed in the playback or else slowed down to half speed at random intervals.
So far we have discussed the primacy of human perception in the creative process. Now, by drawing upon Derrida’s deconstructionism (with its absence of absolute truth) and Merleau-Ponty’s (body centric) phenomenology, I hope that I can demonstrate how my approach to making music in response to two paintings is paradoxically theoretical yet also experiential. My argument being that as visual art and music use such different sensory perceptions it is necessary in a collaborative work such as this to go beyond initial intellectual comparisons towards a more bodily based response. In unpacking the process of making two compositions/ improvisations I hope to unveil something of the ‘carnal formula’ of these creations.
Timothy Emlyn Jones has exhibited drawings and performance art internationally and he is represented in public collections in a number of countries. He currently holds the title of Dean of Possibilities in the Burren College of Art in Ireland. It was my connection with Tim which first inspired the idea for my residency and exploring the connection between painting and music.
During the residency, Tim hung two of his large scale paintings in my music space. The idea was that I would over a period of several weeks engage in a kind of dialogue with the paintings, my music and my own print making.
The first piece, Slow Air (Nocturne Beta) is from a series of paintings Tim has undertaken exploring a basic concept of using three diaganol lines repeated ad infinitum to create optical illusions and an over whelming shimmering effect. His pieces, in many ways, refer to the idea of taking a line for a walk. The title Slow air refers to the slow instrumental laments of Irish traditional music.
Initially, I tried an intellectual approach to making a composition based on this painting. Using Tim's design process of three repeated lines, I tried taking lines from a traditional 'slow air' and layering them using a loop pedal. This was not entirely satisfactory for me. So, as antidote to this approach, I engaged in making skethches and prints myself using similar principles of Tim's. After a few days of engaging this way with the painting and also being in its space constantly, I decided to try a more improvised approach. I simply set up my recording equipment in front of the painting and played. The recording which resulted is available for listening opposite the painting on this page.
