E C H O E S I A N E M E S IAN EMES E C H O E S 20 APRIL - 3 JUNE 2018 IAN EMES Ian Emes began his career as a painter, sculptor and then, animator. He has recently staged his seventh exhibition On The Run, which detailed his legacy as well as explored new concepts using floating screens, lm, CGI and sound design. His animations have also featured in major exhibitions, such as Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains at the V&A and Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma. In addition to Pink Floyd concerts, his works have been used in numerous live music tours such as Mike Oldfield’sTubular Bells Tour, David Gilmour’s Live at Pompeii, and Roger Waters’s The Wall - Berlin and Us + Them World Tour. FILM HIGHLIGHTS TOURS 2016 Nothing Part 14, Pink Floyd 2017 Roger Waters Us + Them, 2013 The War of the Worlds, Jeff Wayne, Anne-Marie North America Tour Wayne, Liam Neeson 2016 David Gilmour European Tour 2001 Rats 1978 Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells Tour 2000 The Invisible Man, Universal Studios 1976 Pink Floyd, Knebworth 1997 Deadly Summer, Linda James 1975 Pink Floyd, World Tour, The 1996 The Munsters, Universal Studios Hollywood Bowl 1992 In-House Director, Ridley Scott Associates 1974 Pink Floyd, Empire Pool, Wembley 1991 The Wall: Live in Berlin, Roger Waters 1989 How to be Cool, Granada, Phillip Pullman AWARDS 1987 The Yob, The Comic Strip, C4 1986 Knights and Emeralds, David Puttnam, Warner Bros 2017 Emmy Nomination, USA 1985 The Box of Delights, BBC 2014 British Animation Award 1983 Goodie Two Shoes, Jeff Katzenberg, 2011 BAFTA Award Paramount Pictures 2009 BAFTA Award 1982 The Chauffeur, Duran Duran 2002 BAFTA Award Nomination 1979 The Beard 1989 RTS Directing Award 1978 The Oriental Nightfish, Paul and Linda McCartney 1989 RTS Design Award 1976 Hearts Right, Roger Daltrey 1984 BAFTA Award London 1975 Tubular Bells, Mike Oldfield 1984 Oscar Nomination 1974 The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd 1979 Palme d’Or Award 1973 One of These Days, Pink Floyd 1979 Award de Qualité EXHIBITIONS 2017 Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, V&A, London 2016 On the Run, City Gallery, Wroclaw 2015 Ikons’ Icons, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 2014 This Time Tomorrow, Ray Davies, Konk Gallery, London 2013 Time, BIAD, Birmingham 2012 One of These Days, Unit 24 Southbank, London 2010 It Was a Thursday Night, The Horse Hospital, London 1980 National Film Theatre Retrospective, London One of These Days / French Windows (1973) Echoes (2018), Acrylic on canvas ECHOES ECHOES is a retrospective exhibition of Ian Emes – the Pink Floyd animator – that explores a body of work spanning over four decades including hand-drawn animation artwork produced in the 70s and 80s, personal drawings and paintings from then until now, and a multi- screen contemporary installation. The exhibition begins in 1972, the year when Emes’s experimental filmFrench Windows - a vision of his own kaleidoscopic universe in fantastic motion where bodies twirl, dance and drift through vortices of geometric shapes and abstract forms – brought him to the attention of Pink Floyd, who commissioned him to create the visuals for what would become one of the greatest albums of all time: The Dark Side of the Moon. The coming decades would bring further collaborations with some of the music scene’s biggest names such as Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells, 1973), Linda and Paul McCartney (Oriental Nightfish, 1978), and Duran Duran (The Chauffeur, 1984). I’VE BEEN MAD FOR FUCKING YEARS (2016) Acrylic on canvas BOOM! (2018), Perspex disc By restoring, archiving, revisiting and re-inventing the works of a by- gone era using new, more frenetic language and new technologies, Ian Emes strives to get back in touch with the power of simplicity, to be brave enough to tumble in slow motion, to freeze and remain still, regardless of impatient young eyes ever-craving for new images. GRANTCHESTER MEADOWS (2018), Installation Film GRANTCHESTER MEADOWS (2018), Installation Film ECHOES is an immersion into Emes’s life-long fascination with the fluid relationship between music and the moving image, controlled synchronization and fortuitous coincidence, his stream-of- consciousness approach to imagining and the meticulous process that follows. The body of work presented in ECHOES provides us with an opportunity to re-live the anarchic spirit enabled by an affluent British society in the 70s, when a free-to-all education enabled the youth to defy the very institutions that paid for it alongside any pre- conceived concept or idea. STUDY FOR INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE (2018), Acrylic, inks, glass STUDY FOR SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN (2018), Acrylic and wax on paper on wax and Acrylic (2018), SUN THE OF HEART THE FOR CONTROLS THE SET FOR STUDY ECHOES is a unique opportunity for the audience to experience the full breadth of Emes’s artistic output, an invitation into the macrocosm of Emes, where figures in the space, perpetual motion and geometric environments intertwine freely and the unexpected is celebrated. STUDY FOR THE NARROW WAY PART 1 (2018), Acrylic and wax on paper STUDY FOR THE NARROW WAY PART 1 (2018), Acrylic and wax on paper paper on wax and Acrylic (2018), 1 PART WAY NARROW THE FOR STUDY Melting Clocks (2017), Time sequence remastered (1979) Ian Emes: A retrospective to reflect now A.M.: There’s something about the experience of live music that can take you out of yourself. The Upcoming, 2012 How do you think that music and moving images relate in this way? Do they create a relationship INTERVIEW the feeds off each other? Abigail Moss: In terms of practicing the craft and experimentation in your art work, is this I.E.: I have to talk personally, because music was a big part of my life growing up and Pink Floyd, something that you would encourage in new, upcoming artists? Do you feel that there’s any such in particular, were an enormous influence. One of the reasons that they were so inspirational thing as good, or more worthwhile, experimentation? for me is that they have an architectural background. They went to architecture college and so I think their music creates spaces. It creates environments of sound and I was so stimulated that Ian Emes: I don’t think there’s any such thing as a bad experiment. Because the whole point about my mind would soar, and so I would see images that were stimulated by the music. As for the an experiment is that it’s not guaranteed to succeed. And, as we say, the price of experimentation live experience, that was the most thrilling when Floyd started to use imagery in their concerts. is failure. For me, there’s not enough emphasis on the benefits of failure. Through the process The trick is not to force it on people, but rather to allow the music to stimulate their imagination of trial and error, you make many mistakes; and through learning from those mistakes, you’ll and the visuals continuing this without over-defining. This makes it even more exciting and eventually have a success. I think there’s pretend experiment, or packaging a concept, which for exhilarating because there’s part of you contributing to the process. me is the most appalling thing you could ever do to make a brand name attach to an experiment. A.M.: Could you perhaps say it’s encouraging an experience, rather than pushing a specific A.M.: Do you think that art and music can help a culture to define itself? meaning or feeling? I.E.: Without being old fashioned, I think art has a duty to be a mirror on society and to reflect I.E.: Yes. And it’s also a group experience, a mass experience amongst your generation. It’s a on it, without thinking about being successful. I think there’s a big emphasis on being famous. generational experience. So you have ownership in it and it’s enormous, it’s as big as where your I don’t think an artist necessarily has to be the starving garret artist, but back in the Surrealist imagination can take you. period, or the Cubist period, they weren’t setting out to be successful: they were tackling an idea. So my worry is that people are too busy becoming a success, and not spending enough A.M.: Finally, thinking about this idea of forming our own individuality, one that isn’t overly time coming to terms with the thought processes in their work. influenced by media and societal factors, does this exhibition offer your own subjective opinion on how that should be done, or just confront us with the issue? A.M.: Do you think it’s more difficult for people to create this individual sense of themselves now, than it was when you started your career? I.E.: Yes, it does. I don’t want to be preachy, obviously, but I’m playing with the idea of identity and with the notion that the corporations take the identity of youth and try to sell it back to them. I.E.: I think there’s more opportunity, but I also think there’s more self-consciousness about For me, the worst thing is when a perfume manufacturer says “Be who you are, whatever”. Now, identity. I don’t want to make sweeping statements, but I feel that the younger generation the thing about that is you can “be who you are” provided you buy my perfume. It’s an absolute are being bombarded, all the time, with what they should be like.