At the Warwick Arts Centre

A quick trip out of London in order to see Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Gudnadóttir's' new composition for Opera North - "Pandora's Box".   This was a live performance by 4 musicians including Jóhann and Hildur in order to illustrate the 1928 silent movie of the same name, starring the siren of silent movies, Louise Brooks.

The composition beautifully complemented the film - for the most part the music wasn't attempting to illustrate the narrative, but to enhance it.  I particularly enjoyed a sequence of about 20 minutes in the first half of the film set in the backstage of a revue - wonderful choreography of the movement of the actors, and very expressive music to accompany it.  Links here:


Opera North    Hildur    Jóhann


While at the Warwick Arts Centre I also dropped in at the Mead Gallery to see an installation by Aeneas Wilder - "Untitled No.162".   This was a rather fascinating, huge sculpture built out of what must be tens of thousands of bits of wood, all resting on each other (i.e. no glue, no nails etc).  I asked one of the gallery attendants if it made them a bit worried when people went too close to the sculpture, and she said that guarding the piece was the most nervous making job she'd ever had!


Here's a panoramic view of the piece with nervous attendant seated on far right:

The piece is being removed by the artist on 1st December at 4pm - in an event described as "kick-down" - because that's literally what he is going to do.