Wynwood Walls

Wynwood Walls draws on 9 artworks which lend their titles to the 9 connected sections of the quintet. The music reflects and amplifies my own subjective responses to the artworks.

The movements are organised in pairs, circling out from a still centre – No Woman, No Cry. The title for this centrepiece comes from Chris Ofili’s moving portrait of Doreen Lawrence, the mother of a teenager murdered in an unprovoked racist attack. As well as this specific reference, the artist intended the painting to be read as a universal portrayal of melancholy, solace, and grief. The two segments flanking No Woman, No Cry complete the central triptych. Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks explores loneliness and isolation, while Grayson Perry’s #Lamentation is a meditation on remembrance and the transience of life. In contrast to the rest of Wynwood Walls, the music here is dark and introspective.

I want my time with you is a giant neon sign designed by Tracey Emin for St. Pancras Station, London. Selfie with Sunflowers is an essay written by Julian Barnes about our over-familiarisation with Van Gogh’s iconic sunflower paintings. The music is sentimental, bordering on schmaltz and kitsch. Sunflower Seeds and Infinity Room are a pair of moto perpetuo scherzos inspired by the minimalist installations of Ai Weiwei and Yayoi Kusama respectively. The opening section, Bathers at Asnières, suggests Seurat’s iconic painting, while the finale, Seurat’s Bathers, evokes Howard Hodgkin’s reworking of the Seurat using a blaze of vivid colours.

The title of the quintet is borrowed from the Wynwood art district of Miami – an area characterised by the hundreds of colourful street murals which decorate the walls of old warehouses in the neighbourhood. In performance, the artworks can be projected onto a screen behind the ensemble.

 

1. Bathers at Asnières

2. I want my time with you

3 . Sunflower Seeds

4. Nighthawks

5. No Woman, No Cry

6. #Lamentation

7. Selfie with Sunflowers

8. Infinity Room

9. Seurat’s Bathers