Alan Davie: Painting, Music, Film

Tickets £14 // Concession £11 // Under 30 £5
Advance booking required

Steve Beresford piano
Phil Durrant electronics / amplified objects
David Toop bone conduction / resonators / tapes / flutes / paper / percussion
Mark Wastell gongs / floor percussion

Mark Hudson curator/artistic director

This special performance showcases archive film of Scottish abstract painter and multi-instrumentalist Alan Davie in his studio with a live improvised music soundtrack.

Performers Steve Beresford, Phil Durrant, David Toop and Mark Wastell will improvise in response to 1960/61 footage of Alan Davie painting, captured by Tom Hudson (1960) and Bili Davie (1961) and edited by Justin Krish (2022). Sampled fragments of Davie’s music – seen as analogous to his spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting throughout his career – will be integrated into the live soundscape, creating a dialogue between disciplines.

The film, shot at Davie’s studio near Hertford, shows the artist at work in his most intensely physical, gestural period. The film material has recently been digitalised to a high standard from the original 8mm footage and has retained its vibrant colour remarkably well. Much of this film hasn’t been seen in public since the 1960s. This will be its first screening in its current form.

Produced by hcmf//

Photo: Alan Davie