I have been working on these small flower accumulations recently. If it ever stops raining I will go out and gather some more material… with a (much) larger piece in mind, possibly as a set for a group of photographic portraits. They are just little experiments, but I thought I should share them!
The illustration section here is finally updated now – there’s a little collection of sketches for installations and drawings, and they pay tribute to my current obsession with everything black-and-white…
I found these pictures again just the other day, so I decided to make a small selection to show here. Catherine O’Gorman photographed these, and I made the set. It was a lot of fun convalescing in Hampstead Heath for the day!
Just sitting on the train back from lovely Newcastle, returning from the Gateshead International Festival of Theatre (GIFT), which, after much praise in its first year, has returned to showcase exiting new work by emerging artist all over the world.
I was invited to perform in Lynnette Moran’s TRASH, a “head-on collision between live art and dirty music” which was pure (organised) mayhem! Pictures to come soon!
I had the pleasure of designing the poster for Bryce Lease’s “The Funeral of Prior Walter”, a play inspired by Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America” and about to be staged at the Roborough Studio, Exeter, next week. I also made the sound/music for it, which hopefully I will be able to post here soon. Exciting times!
Very excited to be working with director Catrin Osborne (of Osborne & What): This is us at her studio this week, talking through my project Drugs & Vinyl, which she is going to direct.
Drugs and Vinyl is the tale of August, a daydreaming hipster in London’s East End, and his comic quest to find success and end his loneliness. Lost in a geeky world of record covers and the mythical stories surrounding their protagonists (from Patti Smith to a giant Banana), August takes his birthday as an opportunity to reflect on whether it may be possible to fit into the in-crowd of outsiders.
An immersive anti-musical, Drugs & Vinyl is a contemplation of mediatisation and how we use it to introduce narrative into our confusing lives. The show itself is live-mixed and mainly watched on a projection screen – with members of the audience becoming the protagonists of some of the most iconic imagery in the history of rock music.
Going on from a year-long residency as director at Circus Space, London, Catrin has formed Osborne & What with a commitment to making innovative theatre pieces – largely based on literature – that employ circus as an integrated artistic device. Blurring the lines between physical performance and acting (she has trained with physical comedy guru Gaulier in Paris), she is devising an ever-growing vocabulary for performance that succeeds in expressing the inexpressible, and that often baffles with its comic and tragic power.
Remember when the sun existed? I don’t really, but then I found these pictures again and they seem to prove that there was once sunshine in London. Photography by Catherine O’Gorman, set by Martin Schnabl. Hampstead Heath, March 2012.
