London Premiere for “A Beautiful Living Thing”

May 18, 2015
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  • Screening and discussion at the RIBA on 23 May 2015 marks end of hugely popular Mackintosh Architecture exhibition
  • Panel chaired by Hugh Pearman, editor RIBA Journal
  • Contributions from artist Ross Birrell, Robyne Calvert, (the GSA) and Malcom Mitchell (PagePark)



Bill Chandler, violinist at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.  A still from A Beautiful Living Thing


Marking the final day of the hugely popular Mackintosh Architecture exhibition on
Saturday 23 May, the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in
partnership with The Glasgow School of Art (GSA) hosts the London premiere of A Beautiful Living Thing, a film by Ross
Birrell, artist and lecturer at the GSA. Shot inside the Mackintosh building in
late December 2014 and early January 2015, the film explores the ruins left
after the fire and muses on Mackintosh’s description of a piece of art:
‘Let
every artist strive to make his flower a beautiful living thing, something that
will
convince  the world that there may
be, there are, things more precious
more
beautiful – more lasting than life itself.’ C R Mackintosh
“Seemliness”
(Glasgow,
1902)
The film features a recording of music composed
by the artist in response to the fire performed inside the library by Bill
Chandler, violinist at the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. The composition
for solo violin forms the foundation of a film which is composed of slow-moving
tracking shots and details of the building, filmed by Birrell with GSA colleague,
Hugh Watt. The film was produced by Jo Crotch, an architect and teacher at the
Mackintosh School of Architecture at the GSA, and is part of a major programme
of academic research aligned to the restoration of the Mackintosh Building.
Birrell’s work combines film, music, installation
and place and has been widely exhibited internationally. He has made several
films with Hugh Watt. Jo Crotch’s research explores embodied experience and
memory which has resulted in a phenomenological approach to learning and
teaching in the design of place. She has previously worked with RSNO violinist
Bill Chandler exploring the experience and understanding of space via music. A
Beautiful Living Thing is the first part of a larger body of work which
will attempt to explore music and movement in a variety of situations within
the fire damaged Mackintosh Building and aims to follow the path from damage
through restoration to completion.


A Beautiful Living Thing is dedicated to the Scottish Fire
& Rescue Services and the Staff and Students of The Glasgow School of Art.
The Mackintosh Architecture exhibition at the
RIBA shows Mackintosh’s original drawings.  It has been the most popular
exhibition to date at the Architecture Gallery, RIBA, 66 Portland Place. 
The Glasgow School of Art: A Beautiful Living
Thing event takes place at the RIBA on Saturday 23 May, 11.30am –
12.30pm. The screening and associated discussion features contributions from artist
Ross Birrell, Malcolm Mitchell of restoration design team leaders, Page Park,
 and Robyn Calvert Mackintosh
Research Fellow at The Glasgow School of Art. Tickets can be purchased from www.architecture.com/mackintosh.
Ends
Media enquiries relating for A Beautiful Living Thing (2015) / The Mackintosh Building / The Glasgow School of Art 
Lesley Booth 
0779 941 4474
press@gsa.ac.uk

For further press information on RIBA: 
Melanie Mayfield, RIBA Press Office:
melanie.mayfield@riba.org
020 7307 3662
Notes for Editors
  • The Architecture Gallery at RIBA is open from
    10am – 5pm Monday to Sunday and until 8pm every Tuesday. Free entrance. RIBA is
    at 66 Portland Place, London, W1B 1AD. Nearest tubes are Oxford Circus,
    Regent’s Park and Great Portland Street. The exhibition is part of a RIBA
    season of wide ranging events and workshops, designed for all ages and experience
    levels. For further information go to     www.architecture.com/whatson
  • Mackintosh Architecture was curated by Pamela
    Robertson, Senior Curator and Professor of Mackintosh Studies at The Hunterian
    for the Glasgow exhibition and by Susan Pugh, Curator, RIBA Drawings and
    Archives for the RIBA exhibition in London.
  • Mackintosh Architecture is the result of a
    four-year research project led by Professor Pamela Robertson, The Hunterian,
    University of Glasgow.  This has delivered the first authoritative
    catalogue and analysis of Mackintosh’s architecture:     www.mackintosh-architecture.gla.ac.uk
  • The project was funded by the Arts and
    Humanities Research Council with additional support from the Pilgrim Trust and
    the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Historic Scotland and the
    Royal Commission for the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland provided
    collaborative input.
  • The Hunterian is home to the largest single
    holding of the work of Scottish artist, architect and designer Charles Rennie
    Mackintosh (1868 – 1928) and The Mackintosh House, the reassembled interiors
    from his Glasgow home.     www.glasgow.ac.uk/hunterian

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