Ra: The Path of the Sun God

Tribute to the work of Paul Klee, Taking a Line For a Walk is an exploration and expansion of the Swiss painter's ideas on color and movement, funded by Channel Four and the Scottish Arts Council in 1983. An astonishing journey modeled and guided along lines from which cities, vast universes, aquatic worlds and ghostly individuals emerge until the lines become the heartbeat of a dialysis machine, uniform and terminal.

This work is a retelling of the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the style of a Greek vase. When his wife Eurydice dies, Orpheus descends into Hell and by charming the gods of the Underworld with his singing wins Eurydice back, only to lose her again at the threshold of the Overworld'.

The travelogue is mobilised again by animator Lesley Keen in Burrellesque, commissioned for Glasgow’s European Capital of Culture 1990 programme. Drifting through Glasgow’s Pollok Park towards the Burrell Collection as seasons shift, Keen’s 35mm film convenes with the spiritual life of the artefacts held therein. These objects break out as kaleidoscopic visions, ripped from their place of origin; escapees pointing to Scotland’s own history of cultural extraction.

This experimental piece explores a couple making a romantic connection. The boy is weighed down by heavy thoughts till he opens his heart to his emotions.

Invocation originated as a sequence within the documentary Orpheus Through the Ages made by Pelicula Films to accompany Orpheus and Eurydice. It was designed to illustrate the Ancient Greek myth of the Creation of the world. It was shot on 16mm and subsequently enlarged onto 35mm for festival screenings. The techniques employed were a test run for those which ultimately were used within Ra; the Path of the Sun God. Two versions exist; one with narration and one without.