I am the Colour Wilhelmina saw you in | Alice Ellis Bray
Last November, Cornish artist Alice Ellis Bray created and performed I am the Colour Wilhelmina saw you in at Tate St Ives as part of their Winter Festival 2021. The performance was recorded, and we are delighted to now share this with you.
Performance of I am the Colour Wilhelmina saw you in by Alice Ellis-Bray, Tate St Ives, November 2021
Alice noted – ‘I wrote and created this performance to celebrate the life of Wilhelmina Barns-Graham. Her use of colour and line is profound and evocative. She often wrote in her diary what colour she saw people in when she met them, she lived with such an awareness of colour having synaesthesia. I was also enchanted by her spirituality, the fact she understood and connected to astrology, the planets, the sun, the moon and the celestial luminosity. A powerful, sensitive artist. Thank you Wilhelmina Barns-Graham.’
‘Weaving between Wilhelmina Barns-Graham’s life, the environments she responded to and human experience; the spoken word becomes a trance like state to immerse you into a rhythmic portrayal of our interconnectedness with all things. Wilhelmina remembered people by their ‘colours’, the costume worn by the artist has been made by abstract paintings to embrace personifying colour itself.’
The costume worn during the performance was made using an abstract painting by Alice’s grandfather, Brian Ellis in the 1960s. To embrace personifying colour itself the performance is filmed against the vibrant backdrop of Wall Drawing #1136, 2004 by artist Sol LeWitt (ARTIST ROOMS collection).
The performance and filming were supported by the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.