{"id":8477,"date":"2018-01-25T10:57:09","date_gmt":"2018-01-25T10:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/?p=8477"},"modified":"2018-07-26T12:01:38","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T11:01:38","slug":"anchored-in-moments-on-paper-the-art-of-adam-de-ville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/music-matters\/2018\/01\/25\/anchored-in-moments-on-paper-the-art-of-adam-de-ville\/","title":{"rendered":"Anchored in moments on paper: the art of Adam De Ville"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sitting in the caf\u00e9 late on a dark winter afternoon, to talk with creative powerhouse, artist, actor and writer Adam De Ville<\/strong> about his Blue<\/em>\u00a0series, one of which is appearing on the cover of the programme for the concert in the Cathedral Crypt by the University Chamber Choir in March, for its performance of Pergolesi\u2019s Stabat Mater<\/em>. The music is a masterpiece of the Baroque period, a dramatic and vivid setting of the thirteenth-century hymn to the Virgin Mary\u2019s suffering during Christ\u2019s crucifixion; Adam\u2019s painting (itself called simply \u2018Blue\u2019) plays with ambiguity, with uncertainty, with questions of identity, the unknown figure’s possible story and the implication of her suffering.<\/p>\n

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Blue: Adam De Ville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/a>Sitting there with a shock of silvery hair giving him a distinguished aspect, his gaze direct, there\u2019s a contradiction almost between the committed energy he has for art, his fierce creativity, and the carefully-paced, gently articulated way he talks about it; it\u2019s as though each sentence is carefully weighed, measured for its value in articulating ideas which are important to him. No words are wasted; you are left with the sense that these things have been a long time in consideration, yet they flow readily into our free-wheeling conversation, as the sky outside darkens and the coffee sits forgotten amongst the papers.<\/p>\n

Photographs of the Blue<\/em> series are spread between us across the table-top as we talk. It was painted eighteen months ago, with two distinct aspects \u2013 one reflecting Adam\u2019s passion for history, with two works referencing the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, and the other his fascination with technology. \u2018I love exploring technology; does it give us an identity ?\u2019 he ponders. \u2018I\u2019m always thinking about how the elderly generation uses technology, and how young people engage with it; does it create gaps, or fill them ?\u2019 He launches into a story about sitting in a restaurant recently, watching a young couple eating, talking with each other and at the same time conducting other conversations on their mobile phones; multi-tasking across different streams with complete ease. ‘I wonder how my own children will use technology in ten, twenty years’ time.’<\/p>\n

\u2018A lot of my work is about looking back and imagining forwards, whilst also embracing the transitory nature of life. I paint to try and get home, to anchor myself in moments on paper.\u2019 The striking sequence of images in the Blue<\/em> series reflects his interest in the colours and tones buried within that single hue; it began during a three-week illness, during which he picked up a sketchbook and began to paint \u2013 but only in blue. I asked him about his focus on a single colour and what it meant. \u2018I was thinking about age, about being at different stages of life; and, on some level, how we deal with \u2018the blues,\u2019 with depression.\u2019 When painting, the images are usually done in a single sitting, although the preparation and thought-process preceding them takes considerably longer.<\/p>\n

A recurrent theme in Adam\u2019s work is the idea of belonging and loss. \u2018I\u2019m fascinated by the idea of coming home to a home that doesn\u2019t really exist. Life is transitory; you set up a home, and an identity which disappears when you die.\u2019 His paintings have titles like Memory of Bern<\/em>\u00a0or Plans for Birmingham<\/em>, as though he\u2019s trying to pin down on the paper something elusive, to capture that fleeting moment that exists either only in the memory or in a brief vision of what might be.<\/p>\n

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Children of Birmingham: Adam De Ville<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Adam\u2019s musical interests include the hypnotic soundscapes of Arvo P\u00e4rt and Gavin Bryars; P\u00e4rt\u2019s Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten<\/em> formed the sonic backdrop whilst he was painting \u2018Blue,\u2019 and Bryars’ mesmerising The Sinking of the Titanic<\/em> inspired \u2018Preludes (where you go I go),’ a haunting sequence of images.<\/p>\n

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