Eclectic music sheds new light on biennial artwork

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 28: From the fading natural beauty of our island to the four elements of our earth, ten musicians came up with a rich mix musical interpretations of the biennial artwork on display at the Bermuda National Gallery.

The Art of Music returned for the second year following the success of last year’s inaugural event. It was an exercise that helped to form new relationships across different creative disciplines, raised funds for the gallery and attracted a new calibre of visitor. Here is a rundown of their musical responses.

Deconstruction Forest by Antoine Hunt written and spoken by Makeen “Haz” Bartley:

Bartley wrote a rap song in response to the real cedar tree installation by Antoine Hunt that reached through the ceiling tiles of the Bermuda National Gallery. The tree, now removed, had been chopped up and haphazardly reassembled, bound by large staples and clods of glue.

For Bartley the tree was a metaphor for Bermuda which itself took the form of a beautiful Bermudian girl who was losing her identity to the glamour of our American neighbours. She dressed herself up in make-up and decorated her body with tattoos, she ditched her accent but soon began to hate herself.

As the construction workers pile into our island, Bartley said, there is not much of her left. As a reminder to us all his parting note was: “It only took one of us to tell her she was beautiful when she was here.” It was certainly food for thought.

He spoke his lyrics in a strong Bermudian accent which seemed to instill pride in the listeners.

The Four Elements by Rohan Shastri and Jamie Macmillan composed and performed by Lionel Thomas on violin:

Lionel Thomas presented the essence of the four elements — earth, fire, water and air in his response to a work by Rohan Shastri and Jamie Macmillan. The artists’ four constructed photographic scenes portray the costs of pollution.

Thomas interpreted everything from the grinding of the tectonic plates to the great surge of the ocean through his varied and textured composition. Had he not described the four combined movements to us, it would have been difficult to decipher every part such as high and low notes representing the vast distance from the core of the earth to its crust. Other sections were easier to translate such as the fast, loud strokes of a fire, the pizzicato (plucked notes) mimicking falling raindrops and the air played weightlessly in a an uplifting major key.

Erasures by Dany Pen composed and performed by Princess Black:

Princess Black was described as tough, magnificent and progressive and her soul-inspired response to Danny Pen’s Erasures contained every element of that description.

Dany Pen’s biennial exhibit focuses on “how memory and history are preserved, salvaged and revived through the displacements of individuals and groups.” The singer, aka Ashanti Caesar, gave a stoic performance in her song The Way of Life which, like the photo, reflected the “Cambodian experience”. Lyrics such as “my forefathers’ pain runs through my veins” were accompanied by a soulful sound and a heavy beat.

Possessed by Teresa Kirby Smith music by 1Undred (Brian and Nicola Swan):

The duo brought an element of trip hop to the stage with sythesized musical textures merged with the natural vocals and a semi acoustic bass. Nicola sang deeply and moodily which reflected the black and white, and night photography by Teresa Kirby Smith. The lights in the gallery were dimmed down for the performance and Nicola’s face was up lit like the subjects of Smith’s photos adding even further to the interaction of mediums. Their style appeared to be strongly influenced by the mellower, deeper songs by UK trip hop band Massive Attack.

Shallow Waters by Jacqueline Alma with music by Heather Nova:

Jacqueline Alma’s painting of a young, black Bermudian man aims to highlight society’s prejudices and misconceptions.

Heather Nova’s song I See It All was an emotional response to the painting.

She said: “When I stand in front of that painting I am very moved — I am moved by the message and the meaning in the painting, I am moved by the look in the subject’s eyes and the reminder that it gives us that we have so far to go in our society in terms of our judgements and preconceptions.”

Her gentle folk song with acoustic guitar, also responded to the artist’s creative process: “Quite honestly it has blown me away,” she said. “In this age of short cuts and immediate gratification she paints taking no shortcuts painting only from life. The subject stood for her for 500 hours so all credit to him too.”

One line in the song was: “My heart connects with the painting on the wall, now in the light she made, now in the subject’s gaze and now I see it all.”

We Did Nothing/Follow Nothing by Michael Walsh:

This artwork was the inspiration behind three works of music the first of which was by Kate Ross on violin, accompanied by Susan Dunkerley on violin, Nancy Smith on flute and Alison Johnstone on cello.

Kate Ross said: “I went around the gallery and other people said as well that it is the one that kind of speaks to you and that piece in the corner spoke to me. I hope that when you hear this it will also speak to you.”

The two sculptures are made from the same mold one formed out of the centre of the other. One is a boat with a body shaped centre carved out and the other is the mass of that centre burned out with large nails jutting out of it. Theirs was a sturdy powerful piece of music piqued by the lighthearted flute.

We Did Nothing/Follow Nothing by Michael Walsh by Milton Raposo and Alan C Smith (Vocals and piano):

Alan C Smith and Milton Raposo’s interpretation spoke of the body as a mere vessel that hardly even matters — with the space in between being  what matters. The lyrics were packed with strong metaphor in a unique, almost spoken word genre.

We Did Nothing/Follow Nothing by Michael Walsh by Michael and Douglas Jones (classical guitar and B Flat clarinet):

Michael gave a vivid introduction describing the song he composed with his son Douglas: “The boat is relaxed it is not following anything it is leaderless, it lives a life on its own on the waves, not caring, indifferent perhaps.

“The figure that forms the intaglio (carved out part) is terrifying — it’s slavery, it’s the gulag 19th and 20th century, it’s the holocaust. So what do you do when you wake up with the holocaust or slavery going on in your back garden? Musically we have plundered the work of a renaissance lutenist called John Dowland who wrote a piece which was hugely successful called Tears. It’s weirdly it’s dedicated to a pirate — it’s possible that Sir George hummed it as he waded ashore. Footnote ties up with Kate Ross in that the holocaust is Greek for completely burned so we will be riffing on Dowland and a few other bits.”

The character of the composition was curious with a playful guitar strum piercing the gaps between the clarinet’s searching melody. The guitar piece sounded as though it had been written for a lute. The two instruments worked together well, like father and son, the guitar and clarinet, one shadowing the others’ every move.

Follow Nothing/We Did Nothing by Michael Walsh and Making Sense by Charlie Godet composed and performed by John Woolridge (piano):

The work by Godet is a 3D metal structure that represents the exact dimensions of a grave (six feet under). John Woolridge of Proud To Be Bermudian fame interpreted the piece with a sense of joie de vivre.

“I thought about this work with a sense of joy because a part of my philosophy is that I want to go through life not resting up but burning up,” John Woolridge explained before his performance.

“That I want to have every bit of my fibre used in living... From that place I’ve been used up (the grave) I moved through a place that most of us see as a final place but I am changing that full stop to a comma.” His piece The Journey had good range exploring everything from a lament to heavier sounds. The song alluded to others at times including the woeful Green Sleeves.

Making Sense (A Grave Dimension) by Charlie Godet Thomas performed by James Richardson:

James Richardson also chose Charlie Godet’s Grave Dimensions to inspire his song Nothing played on keyboard.

“It won’t be that relaxing,” he warned us. “I have written this piece with the intention of using these dimensions mathematically for the purposes of our intent to reason with, grapple with the reality of those dimensions. The challenge of making sense of those dimensions. Nothing.”

He proved to be a passionate player using deep heavy key notes with skittish electronic sounds in the background.