in 2003, we were asked to participate in Union Libre II, our second collaboration with the Ensemble contemporain de Montreal. We wanted to readdress the challenge of presenting paintings with live music at a time when dance is the traditional choice and video the popular and obvious solution to an interdisciplinary, staged event. We decided to address the very nature of the painting as an object and the unique quality of an object as something that plays an active role in the creation of memory in a way that the passive absorption of moving images does not. Conversely, the music was composed to create sound objects or portraits rather than a fluid description of time. Neither of us being performers, we included movement specialist Almut Ellinghaus to help us develop our scenario. and to perform with the paintings on stage.

rehearsal photo - each of the eight large paintings (acrylic on canvas)
measured 62 x 62 inches on 7 inch thick frames which allowed them to stand on their own.