A Flash Between Darknesses

Peter Sheppard Skӕrved is known to the general public as an outstanding violinist and a prolific musician. His close circle, however, knows that he is also a highly gifted visual artist. During the intervals he sits backstage drawing, capturing the audience and the general feeling of the performance. After the concerts, he always withdraws to elucidate his post-performance feelings on paper, using various mediums – graphite, ink, charcoal and paint. Peter Sheppard Skӕrved the violinist has been hosted by the Pharos Arts Foundation quite a few times and all of his concerts have been marked by tremendous success. But music aside, Pharos has also stimulated him to draw a series of art-works inspired by the music he played in Nicosia, the audience’s response, the philosophical and thought-provoking conversations backstage with the rest of the team and the musicians. A Flash Between Darknesses – The Exhibition will open on 27 March at The Pharos Centre for Contemporary Art (24 Dem. Severis Avenue) and will last until 6 April 2015. As part of the exhibition, Peter Sheppard Skӕrved will also team up with violist Morgan Goff, on Sunday 29 March at The Shoe Factory for A Flash Between Darknesses – The Concert – a recital of works that have inspired and were inspired by the exhibition’s art-works.

A FLASH BETWEEN DARKNESSES – THE EXHIBITION
“I have been an artist as long as I have been a violinist. It has not been a public activity, but neither is a lot of my work as a musician. These activities overlap, support each other, and at times, replace, even obscure each other. Much of this work has happened in the notebooks that I keep constantly. Living in central London for all of my adult life, space has always been a premium. That, coupled with my itinerant existence as a musician, ensures that the majority of my graphic work is on small scale, and ‘shut away’. But I have been comfortable with that, with the development of this work, its themes and obsessions, kept private. The privacy has been very helpful, even necessary when, as a performer, my work is immediately public. If one aspect of my work might help clarify the relationship between my violin playing and painting/drawing, it is in the subject matter, or how that matter is communicated. As a classical instrumentalist, I exist in a non-verbal world, yet one where narrative and meaning are communicated precisely; there’s no ambiguity. This is pretty much the same way that I feel about the perceived divide between representative and abstract drawing/painting. I am unable to see it (or hear it). Over the past decade, a substantial part of my output, pen, pencil or brush in hand, has been portraiture-people observed; yet this set of pictures, executed over the turn of the year 2014-2015, is empty of people, and slips into the liminal spaces between landscape, abstraction, map-making and musical notation. The title of this exhibition is taken from a letter which Rupert Brooke wrote about leaving Dover for the First World War, from which he would never return.” © Peter Sheppard Skӕrved

A FLASH BETWEEN DARKNESSES – THE CONCERT
The concert is responding to Peter Sheppard Skӕrved ’s exhibition A Flash Between Darknesses. The title of this group of pictures was taken from a letter written by the British Poet, Rupert Brooke, as he marched to Dover in 1914. There are new works by some of the many composers who write for Peter, as well as poetry by two of his closest collaborators, Malene Skӕrved, and the poet and screenwriter Guy Gallo. The concert is given by Peter Sheppard Skӕrved / violin and Morgan Goff / viola

PROGRAMME:
W.A. Mozart: Duo for violin & viola No.1 in G major, K.423 (1783)
Robert Keeley: Sonatina for violin and viola
David Matthews: 15 Preludes (2014) World Premiere
Evis Sammoutis: Monogenesis (2005)
Sadie Harrison: Gallery (2014)
Thomas Simaku: Capriccioso (2014)
Nigel Clarke: Epitaph, for Edith Cavell (2014)
Malene Skӕrved: ‘And Love’ (2014)
Guy Gallo: Three Violin Poems (2000-14)

Tickets:
Tickets for the Concert only: €15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation.
Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/ or Tel. 96669003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)