Paul Simon announces collaboration with ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’ illustrator
American singer-songwriter Paul Simon has collaborated with The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse illustrator Charlie Macksey on a series of new artworks.
Seven Psalms, Macksey’s latest exhibition, has debuted at Frieze art fair’s London gallery No 9 Cork Street. The new project features Macksey’s interpretations of Simon’s work from his most recent album, also titled Seven Psalms. Simon attended the premiere and participated in a series of questions with Macksey.
“Paul said: ‘I’d be interested to hear or see how you respond’ [to the songs] rather than ‘This is what I’m looking for’,” Macksey explained. “Which was lovely and very freeing. I didn’t feel in any way pressurised to produce, because there was no diktat or brief. I would just put the album on a continuous loop, make some tea, take the dog out and think about which lines stayed with me. Then I’d see images.”
Macksey found a recurring theme of refugees scattered throughout songs like ‘Trail of Volcanoes’ and ‘The Sacred Harp’. “Then I started thinking about refugees,” Macksey said. “I was specifically thinking about the southern border of the United States, with how many people are coming from Central and South America. But there are refugees everywhere.”
“Two hitchhikers are picked up by two people, who I think of as me and my wife, Edie,” Simon explained about the story behind ‘The Sacred Harp’. “We pick up a woman and her child – her son – and part of their story is that they’re refugees, of sorts, from her home town.”
“Being isolated was good for discipline and good for practice,” Simon added. “Having nothing to do with the big wide world for several months was really enjoyable; the demands ceased or reduced considerably. I was playing a lot of guitar and discovering new things about my playing. It was more complex than I had been playing in the last 20 years or more, because in that period I was collaborating with other guitarists to hopefully enhance what they were playing. But [during lockdown] it was just up to me to figure things out and get my imagination on the fingerboard.”
It was when Simon saw the Oscar-nominated film adaptations of Macksey’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse that he first hatched the idea for a collaboration. “I was like, ‘Wow, this is a powerful thing,’” Simon said. “I’ve written one song since Seven Psalms and I could send it to you, Charlie, and we could begin again. It’s the most fun way of working.”
Listen to Seven Psalms below.
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