Juliet Gutch - Sculpture

The shapes within the mobiles are a response to stringed musical instruments and the works acknowledge instruments as honed and initially quiet sculptural forms.

The creating of stringed instruments and the making of mobiles share many techniques: template making, steam bending, moulding, and stringing and the materials take inspiration from those often used for violas (spruce and maple).

The sound of a played stringed instrument is the result of interactions of its own many elements, producing notes of music which radiate from the body of the empty sound box into the surrounding air. The constantly moving and changing mobiles aim to convey a sense of this balanced interaction of varying parts and empty space.

Musical notes, once played, are a unique performance; the composition is never repeated in exactly the same way. The fleeting nature of the configurations created by the movement of the mobiles echoes this transience.

Please click here to view more information about the mobiles in the Dovetailing installation.

Clare Dearnaley - Film

The film is projected through the suspended mobiles and weaves together light and shadow.

The shapes of trees, mobiles and music combine with natural sound compositions, the quiet making of sculptures, instruments and notes.

The indivisibility of positive and negative spaces are explored, the balance of quietness and sound, emptiness and materiality, transience and permanence.

There are five short movements to the film:

The wind in the trees

Crafting of forms

The shadows of music

Lightness of movement

The Forest

At times abstract, at times quietly observational, Dovetailing is an immersive experience where birdsong, wind, music and the recordings of tools create a forest of sound.

The film explores layers of creativity and interaction, with the viewer becoming the very final layer.

Clare has produced a series of wooden prints for exhibition, click here to view.

Sally Beamish OBE - Composer

‘Prelude and Canon', originally for two violins, was commissioned by Peter Lissauer for the Inaugural 'Partial to Paganini Festival' held at Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. The premiere, in March 2006, was given by Clio Gould and Jonathan Morton, played on a Stradivarius by Clio, with Jonathan playing on a new violin inspired by Stradivarius, built that week by a team of violin makers.

This short duet is 'canonic' throughout, the opening Prelude leading to a true canon, beginning with the second violin. In the central, slower section, the violins reverse, and the first violin is the lead voice to the end of the piece, which ends with a brief coda referring to the Prelude. The two parts within the piece of music are equal and non-hierarchical, perfectly evoking the theme of the Dovetailing project.

The work has been specially arranged for violas and was premiered by Sally Beamish and Sophie Renshaw as part of their discussion about the project, recorded during the first lockdown for the London Mozart Players in May 2020.

The Dovetailing film will also feature Sally’s daughter Stephanie Irvine who is a luthier and who made Sally’s viola, as well as Linus Andersson who made Sophie’s viola.