February 25, 2017
This new body of paintings for Audrey Grant’s Open Eye Gallery Exhibition Award, presented at the Society of Scottish Artists Annual Exhibition in 2015, arises from the artist’s collaboration with Scottish Ballet in rehearsal at their studios in Tramway, Glasgow.
Since spring 2012 Grant has had privileged access to Scottish Ballet’s rehearsals, spending full days observing and drawing with pencil in sketchbooks the movement of the dancers. In the rehearsals Grant focused on trying to capture something of the energy and shape of the movement, looking at the dancers and not her drawings, building up networks of marks that would take the shape of recognisable bodies and movements. Taking inspiration from these drawings, Grant has created a new series of paintings focusing on the powerful and moving ballet premiered in Scotland at the 2016 Edinburgh International Festival – MC 14/22 (Ceci est mon corps), choreography by Angelin Preljocaj, and Christopher Hampson’s lyrical Cinderella.
MC 14/22 is a ballet for 12 male dancers and has been described as a hymn to the male body. The title is a biblical reference to the Last Supper, as told in Mark 14:22, in which Jesus says to the disciples, ‘Take, eat: this is my body’.
For more details and to view the exhibition go to the Open Eye Gallery website