Fresh Fresh Air

2016

In Autumn 2016 as part of their Movement project Horsecross Arts commissioned contemporary artists Su Grierson, Brian Hartley and Katrina McPherson to each create new artists films in response to the archive of pioneering artist and choreographer, Margaret Morris.

“My aim in making Fresh Fresh Air was to make a work with a contemporary feel but which embodies a number of the theories, ideas and passions of Margaret Morris.

As an artist working with landscape, I find all of her ideals about the restorative benefits of fresh air and being in the landscape resonate with me, and this work is set mainly on the Tentsmuir beach in Fife.

MM’s vision of health, posture and both the control of bodily movement and the benefit from the spontaneous freedom of movement are at one with performer Brigid McCarthy’s role as a teacher of Pilates.

The movements used by Brigid respond both to MM’s sense of the Greek system of movement as well as her sense of oppositions. The therapeutic use of movement to assist specific areas of the body such as arms, hands and feet are also reflected in this work.

MM wrote of her system of working to the limits of the available space for her choreography. She employed the natural frame of the landscape but also was very aware of the spatial framing of the camera lens. In Fresh Fresh Air the nature of these framings was consciously used and to them was added the digital framing which is now part of the computer editing process.

It is unfortunate that MM’s great love of colour for her stage performances is only demonstrated in her writing because most of the images and video of her work were in Black & White. One foray into colour by her was with the very advanced Friese-Greene system and its creator, Claude Friese-Green, did apparently make one work with MM. She also used colours to name the various levels of training within her exercise system. This progression from Black and white to full colour has been embraced in Fresh Fresh Air.”

Movement was commissioned by Horsecross Perth, in association with the University of Edinburgh and Margaret Morris Movement. It was funded by Creative Scotland. The works have been shown at Horsecross Perth Concert Hall on the 22 screen Wave and as a single screen work by The Workroom at CCA Glasgow.