Balmy transpositions.

Visual artist Florence Peake invites us to join her in riding the ninth wave of meditative conductivity with this MIX. Self-described as a playlist that “mines the heart and leaves you wrecked”, she calls on tracks by a hybridised selection of musicians that she considers nearest and dearest. 

 

The glitchy synths of the first piece ‘Hollywood Medieval’ immediately spark sensation, coating membranes in fuzzy sponge. But when the paced strings soothe us into a physical consciousness, we are planted in the middle of one of Peake’s bodily demonstrations; layered and penetrative. Creative expeditions into her lyricism of emotion call on the melancholy song-craft of Gillian Welch and Alicia Keys but are lifted at once in punctuations of percussion that tempt movement. We are held at the crests, flung into a hard collision by the punk pitches of ‘Homophobic Arsehole’ and a cacophony composition by Igor Stravinsky. These hint towards the provocative political nature of Peake’s performative practice. Still, we relish in the subaqueous troughs. “Stepping out of the page into the sensual world”, the intimate vignettes of Kate Bush suggest a cognisance to the fascination of desire which, much like her artwork, records the process of forming temporary alliances and relationships. It’s a MIX that’s fluid. It’s melodically balanced. It’s emphatically Peake. 

 

‘Om Shanti’ is the artist’s final prayer. A lasting impression of comfort in troubling times that places us in the palm of the hand and the palm of the heart. Peace, Peace, Peace.

Words by MILLEN BROWN-EWENS

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