Meditation - for the victims of the Tsunami.

Meditation - for the victims of the tsunami

Toshio Hosokawa's Meditation (for the Victims of the Tsunami 11/3/11) is a haunting composition, awfully relevant, as the immediate tragic losses threaten to be eclipsed by the ongoing drama of radioactive leakage from Fukushima. We have all been shocked by the video footage, but this music touches us at a deeper emotional level, as we consider the future of our planet. 

How can one visualise this? The gradual dawning of a terrible reality demands kinetic visuals, not still photos. My images stem from and are driven by Toshio's music. The still shots below are painfully inadequate, but they might give you an inkling (I like that word, because I'm using coloured inks) of what you need to see as a continuous performance.

The earth splits apart - then Japanese harmony with nature is shaken by a calligraphic shriek from the strings, followed by chaotic fragmentation and so forth.... This is as much about shock and inner turmoil as physical destruction.

In my visualization, the encroaching waters only literally appear in the movement entitled Meditation. The alto flute solo conjured up in me a nightmare flash-back in slow motion, where the calligraphy gradually crumbles apart and floats away. My kinetic painting on seven overhead-projectors spreads off-screen, then all around the podium.

The final movements: Elegy, Tear, then Pray, are terribly sad. My giant brush (the cycle of Nature? The hand of God? The power of the Brush?) gently sweeps everything aside, to create a clean slate, as it were. All quietly presided over, as it were, by Mount Fuji.

I can't wait to work with Toshio, as he conducts three of his own works with Mayumi Miyata, the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra and my visual premiere. The Amsterdam concert Cloud & Light on 26th October is already virtually sold out.