Tiles: St Mary De Lode
The final Space. All my other tiles have been inspired by the building, the spaces themselves and the stories they have to tell. This track is about home and welcome and I wanted it to have people at the heart of the it, specifically the mix of people that have brought Spaces into being...
This tile is a close up of a larger artwork. As usual, I walked around the space taking photos of anything that caught my eye to use as a reference later. The shape that the light made falling through a high window onto a stone pillar caught my attention. When I played about with the photo later (examples further down this post), the shapes of light began to look like abstract figures. I used these abstract figures in the finished artwork, so that they are both people and light, all at the same time. The stained glass behind them is made up of fingerprints from Spaces collaborators, making their unique mark on the Spaces Project. A silhouette of George’s hands frames them all, which feels right as he pulled this project together, and alludes both to the lyrics in the song and his role as director and producer (I asked him to hold his hands as a cinematographer might, to capture a shot). You can see through the figures to the stained glass and on to the silhouette of the hands. It captures something of the light and spirit of the Spaces project and honours the ancient space we were part of for a time.
Alternatives: Various distortions of the patterns of light cast through the window.
Two versions of the larger artwork framed by George’s hands.
And, to finish, a favourite photo of mine that I took during the recording of the last session.