Another collaborative piece today. This time with a dear friend of mine, Tim Grosvenor. I wanted to work with a piece from Tim’s magical “Drawing in Paint” series and eventually chose the haunting “Out of Darkness”. Tim’s work has a depth of thought and sophistication of execution that I have rarely seen (and hardly ever see these days…) but above all, and especially for this piece, it was the sheer magical thrill one feels as one is inexorably drawn into the piece that I most sought to respect and preserve. At all costs, as it were. For me, too, the other main aspect of the piece to be respected was the flawless intricacy of the demanding process employed in the execution. I hope and trust that in some small way I have been successful here…
Though superficially our work appears totally dissimilar, through many conversations we have discovered that we share a deep overall sensibility that informs much of our respective artwork. Strangely, however, although we have often spoken of collaborating together on a project this is actually the first time we have done so, albeit here in a small way. I certainly hope it will not be our last such collaboration!
To accompany today’s piece I have chosen “When Blue Turns Gold”, a collaboration between McLaughlin and his Indian friends, Zakir Hussein and Hari Prasada. Incidentally, the pianist is McLaughlin’s then wife, Katia Labeque, one half of the concert pianist Labeque Sisters. Thinking about the many collaborations that McLaughlin has had with musicians from many varied genres made me think of how musicians in general collaborate with so much greater ease and regularity than, say, visual artists. Of course, as a performative art it’s a more natural thing to do. To some extent a necessity even. Still, one wonders if more collaboration between like minded visual artists would, or should, be possible…
When Blue Turns To Gold, John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussein, Hari Prasada, Katia Labeque
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