Heidi…
…exploring the potential in what lies between live music and painting – Donegal-based French artist Heidi Nguyen and I are in the discovery stages of what promises to be a very exciting collaboration.
As an artist more interested in process than result, Heidi is curious to see if, and how, her response to live music might shape her work and approach. Even though Heidi isn’t consciously listening and engaging with me as she paints, we’ve discovered that her creative language is subtly informed by variations in the styles, sound-worlds and textures of the pieces I choose to perform.
Following some slow, long notes, and a bit of improvisation around the open string notes of G, D, A and E to get us both warmed up, watch Heidi’s response to my playing a movement of solo Bach in this YouTube video in our first session together.
Heidi is holding up the resulting painting in the image on the left.
Our second get-together was a 2-day intensive thanks to the MAC in Belfast, a totally different experience for both of us. Violin, viola, painting, drawing - all 100% improvised and free-flowing responding to each other in the moment. Some really interesting outcomes….looking forward to seeing where this takes us!
Click here to watch us in action.