Luminescence, a collaboration between the visual artist Maria Rud and saxophonist Tommy Smith, opened in St Giles’ Cathedral on Thursday night as part of the Fringe.
It is completely improvised in the moment – Smith had no idea what he was going to play as St Giles’ fell into darkness – so it is never the same twice.
Maria said: “I see what I’m creating as a live “storyboard” in which music plays the role of a script, and in this case the script unfolds as Tommy and I converse through our respective media.”
Maria paints onto a small window frame and her images are then projected onto St Giles’ massive east window, lending a scale that dwarfs both artist and musician.
Maria was born in Moscow and grew up surrounded by music – her Ukrainian-born mother was a composer – and from an early age she discovered that music suggested images. “That’s the way I hear music,” she says, “through visual images rather than just the sound and the notes.”
LIMITED RUN – Luminescence is at St Giles’ Cathedral (Venue 187) until Saturday 19 August.
