Birmingham artist and video designer Matthew J Watkins is bringing to life a futuristic 100-year-old sculpture as part of a performance which seeks to revive the folk songs and stories that would have been in the hearts and minds of soldiers in the First World War.
Matthew will be working with The Rock Drill by Sir Jacob Epstein, which can currently be seen at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery for Musical Meditations on the First World War, which comes to Birmingham Town Hall next month.
The show will include music from folk artists and alongside the songs will be a backdrop with images being projected on to Epstein鈥檚 sculpture, seen as a stunning vision of the future when it was created in 1913-15.
The Rock Drill鈥檚 design is now recognised as a masterpiece of the short-lived Vorticist movement, launched in 1914 to signal a move away from landscapes and nudity towards more abstract pieces.
Epstein鈥檚 own interpretation comprised a life-sized robotic man seated upon an actual rock drill.
It was shown briefly in 1915 and then dismantled.
The museum鈥檚 current version was presented by Ken Cook and Ann Christopher through the Friends of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1982.
It鈥檚 a polyester resin, metals and wood reconstruction from 1974 and is based on Epstein鈥檚 studio photographs.
Designing it on the eve of the First World War, Epstein perceptively reduced the human form into a faceless robot.
Most soldiers had previously worked in agriculture, but soon millions would be dying on the battlefields of the first mechanised conflict they knew precious little about in the pre-multi media age.
Matthew (aka Beat13) says: 鈥淩ock Drill is not just about 100 years ago.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a genuine attempt to convey additional information.鈥
The museum gave him permission to film the copy of Jacob Epstein鈥檚 Rock Drill sculpture so that he could then appear to be projecting images on to it.
Projects like Musical Meditations, which takes place at Birmingham Town Hall next month, are enabling Matthew, 40, to fuse together his interest in several disciplines, from art to photography, animation and web design.
The Edgbaston-based artist has previously worked on the visual campaigns for the debut 2001 album from Gorillaz, a virtual band created by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett.
He created a number of clips for the live touring shows and a track on his website, featuring Lou Reed, was created for the Plastic Beach tour.
鈥淲ith Gorillaz, I realised that animation and visual things could be an important part of live performance.鈥 he says.
鈥淚 really enjoyed the way it complemented the music.鈥
More recently he worked on Live_Transmission: Joy Division Reworked, in which an orchestra and Matthew鈥檚 new audio-visuals paid homage to one of the world鈥檚 most progressive bands.
鈥淛oy Division inspired my reinterpretations of the music because there was no lead singer,鈥 says Matthew.
鈥淚t aimed to convey the late Ian Curtis鈥檚 presence.
鈥淛oy Division were highly regarded and very well loved so there was a big worry there because I wasn鈥檛 a massive fan.
鈥淏ut (real) fans felt I had really captured it and that 鈥業an Curtis would have enjoyed the show鈥.
鈥淭he people who are organising Musical Meditations saw it and thought 鈥榃e鈥檝e got to get this guy to do something for us.鈥欌
Through the research that has been done for the project covering the period from 1910-20, Matthew says he can see how it was a lot more modern than people often realise.
鈥淭he concept of futurism would have meant nothing to 99 per cent of Britons,鈥 he says.
鈥淭here was no internet, Twitter or even television.
鈥淏ut through the First World War, ordinary life was being changed for ever and in a drastic style.
鈥淲hat was going on in people鈥檚 minds without the television and press there?
鈥淲ar Horse captured it well, showing people just stepping into a barrage of machine guns.鈥
Reflecting upon the event鈥檚 relevance to today, Matthew wonders about the more knowledgeable thought processes involved with signing up for Britain鈥檚 armed forces in the 21st century.
People think they won鈥檛 be killed, he muses, yet if things go wrong he points out that relatives then want a scapegoat for 鈥榳hat happened to our son?鈥
Matthew adds: 鈥淚 read somewhere that in the First World War, 13 per cent of people took part died, yet 250,000 were killed in a couple of days.
鈥淚t鈥檚 such a big topic that it鈥檚 dangerous for us to even begin to attempt to tell the whole story.
鈥淧oetry then was a pastime and people enjoyed the writing process.
鈥淚t inspired me, thinking that we lost a generation of creative minds.鈥
Musical Meditations on the First World War will feature Mercury Prize folk artist Sam Lee and sisters Rachel and Becky Unthank collaborating for the first time.
Their skill is to take a traditional repertoire and reinvent it aurally for contemporary audiences.
And the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War was seen as an opportunity to look back at the creative landscape of the early 20th century to rediscover its oral traditions.
As well as performing original repertoire from the time, there will also be lots of new material, including interpretations of personal stories and special arrangements to First World War poetry.
鈥淭his new show has been designed to work with performers in front of it,鈥 says Matthew.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not a documentary, not a film 鈥 everything is done live and mixed.
鈥淲ar is a depressing place to go back to as there is little to cheer about, but it won鈥檛 be like a funeral.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a chance to show what the experience would have been like for people in the trenches.鈥
Matthew鈥檚 future projects include the Longbridge Lights Festival and a commission for a DJ that will use overhead projectors 鈥 much cheaper than hiring modern digital projectors.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 going to be a lot of fun,鈥 he smiles.
* There are more examples of Jacob Epstein鈥檚 work in the The Garman Ryan Collection. This was donated to the people of Walsall by Lady Epstein in 1973 and is now on display at The New Art Gallery Walsall.
