Preview of a proposed multimedia performance by Rohan de Saram (cello), with live visual art by Denis Brown (calligraphy/mixed media).

Calligraphy- the art of beautiful writing has a classical past whose functionalism has restrained it's artistic freedom until recent times. In this performance, Denis Brown will dance between and over various boundaries defining both craft and art. He will make large scale calligraphic works drawing on his classical training but also from the fields of graffitti, street art, painting and performance art.

Using large brushes, huge self-made pens and even foot or hand prints, he'll write and sgraffitto at large scale. Working behind backlit translucent canvases, as well as across wall mounted panels, words will emerge and and be submerged in abstract gestures; a mixed media performance choreographed and improvised over Rohan de Saram's masterful cello arrangements. Brown has described calligraphy as 'a recording in ink of a performance of movements', but this will be the first time he has placed as much emphasis on the performance as on the the record.

Rohan de Saram is a world class cellist and has played throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Soviet Union as soloist with the major orchestras and leading conductors of the world. He will perform solo cello works by Bach, Kodály,and Arnold Bax's. Bax's Celtic idealism will be referred to in some of the words and texts chosen by Brown, and these will be playfully cross referenced to the here and now.... for example, nostalgic quotations by Yeats may be abbreviated and transcribed SMS style onto large canvases. Continually, surprising links will be drawn between past and present.

Film produced by Denis Brown will be projected over his body and the canvases he works for a multi-layered dynamic. Digitally manipulated recordings of DeSaram's music and various sound effects will act as beds and interludes under the live cello.

The performance will play on dynamic interactions between sound and vision, word and image, classical and avant-garde, manual and digital.

We are beginning to seek venues
and funding for this project.
If you can help in any way
or desire further information,
please do not hesitate to contact me