Dan Knight

The Trust made its latest award to Dan Knight in 2010.  It takes us into a new area for the Trust – a mixture of craft and performance.  This is partly what attracted us to Dan’s proposal.  Dan wanted to build a bottle-organ and give a public charity performance with a newly commissioned piece.  What also attracted us were the proposal’s simplicity, modesty and clarity of purpose.  Dan describes his work as

“…. sculpture that transforms energy to create movement, sound and light and my work can often be manipulated by a viewer.  I am also interested in waste and detritus and giving things a new life.”

He built his first organ 11 years ago and experimented with different versions then

“I had the idea to make a big version that has every note that can be got from a bottle and I had the vision to make it like a small room that you can go inside and be surrounded by the sound.”

The Trust has funded his development through several prototypes, The first outing for Prototype Number Two was at Vauxhall Heritage Centre , St. Peter's Church, Vauxhall on May 1st and it included two previous bottle organs and the first performance of several pieces of music written for the three organs and three voices.
The second show for Prototype Number Two was at The Old Vic Tunnels , under Waterloo Station with one of it's antecedents , on November 28th and 29th. They both got a great reception.
Dan's final show under Trust sponsorship was this summer at the Lewisham Art House. He had organised a competition for a piece of music to be played during the show. 5 bottle organs and other instruments made by Dan were on show for everyone to play and listen to. An event in which everyone could participate and a great finale to this award. Two twenty minute pieces composed by Dan were played, one a solo performance by Dan, the other with a group of friends. Both compositions created a restful atmosphere while the players moved among the instruments. The audience response to the evening was very enthusiastic.

Images from the show appear below. The Trust has enjoyed working with Dan and wishes him all success in the future.