Tartinis dream

Tartinis dream
By Darren Bailey LRPS

This piece will be exhibited at the 11th international Parallax art fair from the 24th to the 25th of October at Chelsea old town hall on the Kings road London .


“He (Tartini) dreamed one night, in 1713, that he had made a pact with the Devil, who promised him to be at his service on all occasions; and during this vision everything succeeded according to his mind. In short, he imagined he gave the Devil his violin, in order to discover what kind of musician he was; when to his great astonishment, he heard him play a solo so singularly beautiful and executed with such superior taste and precision, that it surpassed all he has ever heard or conceived in his life.

So great was his surprise and so exquisite his delight upon this occasion that it deprived him of the power of breathing. He awoke with the violence of his sensation and instantly seized his violin in hopes of expressing what he had just heard, but in vain; he, however, then composed a piece, which is perhaps the best of all his works (he called it the “Devil’s trill Sonata”) but it was so inferior to what his sleep had produced that he declared he should have broken his instrument and abandoned music forever, if he could have subsisted by any other means."

Piece created using a Nikon D90 and a Sigma 150mm f2.8 macro.

Also used

1 x Violin
Zippo lighter fluid
Methylated spirit
Manfrotto LED lighting panels
Splash of imagination

(Sorry but a Violin was harmed during the creation of this piece)

How This Piece Was Created
To create this piece I firstly acquired a broken violin and then restored it by adding a new bridge and new strings I placed the Violin on my work surface and set the camera up , once set up at the desired angle and settings I then added LED lighting panels in the desired position to illuminate the piece the way I liked and then gently doused all around the edges of the violin with lighter fluid once ignited I blew the flames from above to fan them out on the effect seen in this piece as I did this I fired the camera shutter using a remote release.
Read less