Flow - Life Painting Performance

Premiered at the Edinburgh International Fringe Festival 2022, at the Pianodrome, 17 & 18 August 2022.
Flow An immersive improvisation; an exploration of paint, space and sound. Edinburgh artist Alan McGowan, life models Topaz Pauls and Alisdair Richardson and musicians from Sink collaborate to produce a changing, shifting, developing scene recorded in paint. Be carried on the swell of the music as the model flows from pose to pose. Witness the paint accumulate as the artwork evolves. Fuelled by each participant's attention to each present moment - what emerges is unexpected, unpredictable; a result of the ephemeral leaving its trace.

The performances involved the creation of a life painting during the 1 hour show, with the contributions of life models (Topaz Pauls and Alisdair Richardson) and also the musicians SINK who create an improvised musical score. There were two shows, one on the 17th of August (featuring Topaz Pauls as model) and one on the 18th (Featuring Alisdair Richardson), at the Pianodrome at the old Royal High School with tickets priced £12 (or £10 concession).



About the Artist

Alan McGowan is a figurative artist known for his expressive draughtsmanship and his commitment to working with life subjects. His work has featured regularly in exhibitions of contemporary figure art including at the the National Portrait Gallery and the Royal Scottish Academy and he was a semi-finalist in the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year.

In 2012 he published his first book of book of life drawings titled "The Language of the Body", which was followed in 2017 by the publication of his second book "Unstill Life"

“McGowan astutely parallels the act of seeing/painting with that of the jazz musician — echoed in his free, sensuous dynamic technique"

About S!nk

S!nk compose music on the spot - a sax, accordion and violin weave an acoustic tapestry which is draped momentarily around their listeners. Their 13 years of work together has seen them produce three albums, numerous live film soundtracks in collaboration with Edinburgh Filmhouse and none other than the creation of the Pianodrome itself. vvvvv vvvvv vvvv