As I am currently gearing up for exhibiting the collaboration I have been working on with composer Ailis ni Riain (http://ailis.info) in September, I’m having a small pause for thought about how it all began.
Ailis originally got in touch with me after seeing the work in a solo show I had at Southwell Artspace, Nottinghamshire (now sadly closed thanks to the recession’s bite). The show – called “Flashback” – brought together 14 altered book works; I had sculpted the books into the shape of fires. My aim with these works was to draw a parallel between the way that knowledge is disappearing thanks to books being outmoded by the internet and the knowledge that has disappeared due to the various book burnings that have occurred throughout history. As is often the case when you are so focussed on what you want to say with your work, you forget that other people will inevitably have their own unique take on it. So, I was taken aback when Ailis contacted me to say that when she saw my pieces, she “heard music” and would I like to collaborate? After finding out a bit more about her and her work, I had to say a chuckling yes to that – I am one of the least musical people I know – as I was intrigued to find out what it would be like to work with a composer.
Ailis had recently completed her “Lighthouse Lullaby” project (www.bigartmob.com/view/4857/singing-lighthouse) and was keen to site more music in public spaces. She had spotted a place she liked the look of in city centre Manchester – a closed off part of Victoria train station – and we began to discuss potential ideas. By a massive stroke of luck I had recently acquired an almost complete set of UK Ordnance Survey maps (circa 1970s), as I had rescued them from being thrown away at my local library. Because our project was shaping up to have a travel/journeys/train theme, the maps seemed to be a good starting point. Looking back now from a nearing-project-completion standpoint, they seem an appropriate symbol of the long road we’ve travelled in order to reach this point…
