Bending light

In the studio playing with colour and light to create the visuals for CHROMA’s Awakening concert programme.

My tools were sunlight, colour and an acrylic vase, so there were several elements in play: the time of day and strength of the sunlight; the colour and pattern of the material under the vase; the positioning of the camera lens, and the movement of the rig. It was a form of choreography - I ended up almost dancing.

Eventually I got the curves and the radiating rays I wanted, echoing the motifs from Liam Byrne’s 17C viol manuscript, and at the same time reminding me somewhat of the strings of the cello and the viol.

During one of the performances, a friend reported that her neighbour (another friend - they had been introduced before the show) leaned across and whispered “is that digital or analogue?”. She smiled as she knew how I had created the film entirely in camera - but left him guessing.

The programme included some commissions - from  Freya Waley Cohen, Rubens Askenar and David Bruce - that I had not heard yet, so I created some non-radiant sections, building up a small library of options to raid once we were rehearsing up the new pieces.