I see the dreams of water, I see water dreaming.
The four paintings, called “I see the dreams of water, I see water dreaming” flowed onto the canvases one after the other over a year or so. There was no tension in the making but rather hours of interaction with surface, water and paint. Each painting was received by Clare, the composer with such enthusiasm. Her four compositions, “floating underwater in the sun”, “floating underwater in the shade”. “Floating underwater in a twisting river”, and “floating underwater in forested rock pool” plus the corresponding image were then sent to Darius in Lithuania: Darius in these recordings plays the birynė virtuoso (the birynė is a traditional Lithuanian reed pipe). I cannot explain how they heard the colour and movement that I was working with but they did. Nick immediately saw the potential for a multi media digital piece made from taking photographs of each painting and using the music to frame the movements. Nick has delicately shifted the mark with the rhythms into gentle adventures for the eye. In all, time is suspended, there is reflection which seems to speak to the dynamic between flow and movement of paint, sound and its intimate relationship with colour, the breath through the birbyne, holds the earthy material like quality in the paintings. Is it light and texture that keeps matter so fluid?
Jill Trappler – jill@jilltrappler.co.za
The four Floating Underwater pieces seek to reflect the sensual flow of water in Trappler’s paintings. The gentle, wooden sound of the birbynė seemed to me to fit the movement of the paint on the canvas. Each piece is written to capture one or two aspects of a painting, seeking to evoke sunlight dancing on moving water, for example, or a moment of repose in quiet blue, the dark undertows in a rushing river, or the playful twists in a swirling rock pool.
Clare Loveday – clareloveday@wol.co.za
The creative ideas of two South African artists – Clare Loveday and Jill Trappler, who inspired me as a performer and interpreter, were like a voyage into an unknown land. The unpredictable and bristling structure and melodic flexibility of Loveday’s compositions echo perfectly Trappler’s visual ideas and brought me to the yet unknown spaces of senses and colours.
While interpreting and making recordings I used two “scores”: the sheet music of Clare’s works and the photographs of Jill’s pictures. All of this helped me to include the third element into the creative process, namely, my instrument, the birbynė.
Darius Klisys – studiodk@takas.it
The way the art, music and motion came together felt like a very natural process. I felt that the video should echo the musical and artistic journey and not hijack it. There was no real brief, so I just immersed myself in the art and the music and followed the path.
Nick Potgieter – info@nickpotgieter.co.za