Pastoral
Pastoral (2019)
Pastoral was an installation in the historic West Dean House as part of the Arts and Crafts Festival 2019.
In 1938, surrealist art patron Edward James commissioned Francis Poulenc to compose a choral and orchestral work based on his poetry. Poulenc later wrote Le travail du peintre, a song cycle about artists including Picasso, Chagall, Braque and Klee. He wrote: “I thought it would stimulate my work to paint musically”.
Using the notion of ‘painting musically’, Pastoral began with an idea to ‘paint’ a landscape using the deconstructed innards of an old piano. A graphic score, created using the Surrealist technique of frottage, echoed the romance and drama of a landscape as it flowed out from the piano. The interpretation of the graphic score by pianist John Collett enabled the idea of painting musically to come full circle.
Pastoral was an installation in the historic West Dean House as part of the Arts and Crafts Festival 2019.
In 1938, surrealist art patron Edward James commissioned Francis Poulenc to compose a choral and orchestral work based on his poetry. Poulenc later wrote Le travail du peintre, a song cycle about artists including Picasso, Chagall, Braque and Klee. He wrote: “I thought it would stimulate my work to paint musically”.
Using the notion of ‘painting musically’, Pastoral began with an idea to ‘paint’ a landscape using the deconstructed innards of an old piano. A graphic score, created using the Surrealist technique of frottage, echoed the romance and drama of a landscape as it flowed out from the piano. The interpretation of the graphic score by pianist John Collett enabled the idea of painting musically to come full circle.
