A Beautiful Living Thing

Taking its title from Mackintosh’s description of a work of art and funded by the GSA Mackintosh Restoration Project Research Development Fun, A Beautiful Living Thing documents the destruction of the Mackintosh library and the fire-damaged building and features a composition for solo violin which I composed specifically for the building and which was performed inside the ruined library by Bill Chandler (RSNO). A second film features performances by members of the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra filmed over 11-13 September 2015. The film responds to the improvisation of fire as it moved through the west façade of the building, from the basement to the rooftop, in a series of solo and ensemble performances by 18 members of the acclaimed Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra performed on all four floors of the fire-damaged Mackintosh. The companion work, features a solo performance by dancer, Tom Pritchard.

A Beautiful Living Thing film series is structured, therefore, around a dialectic of composition and improvisation in response to architecture, music and fire and considered as modalities for artistic practice and research. An account of the development of A Beautiful Living Thing film project with reference to the aesthetic theory of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari and to the architectural theory of Luis Fernández-Galiamo, was published as ‘A Beautiful Living Thing’ in the ‘artist pages’ section of Performance Research, ‘On Libraries’ Vol. 22, Issue 1, Spring 2017; ISSN: 1352-8165; 115 – 119.

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