Corinne Bailey Rae
(Picture: Dave Benett)Grammy Award winner Corinne Bailey Rae says she does not mind if the audience for her gig at the new Serpentine Pavilion are more interested in the building than her.
The singer, whose hits include Put Your Records on, is one of several acts lined up to play the Black Chapel building designed by US artist Theaster Gates.
The wooden pavilion includes a bronze bell salvaged from a Chicago church before it was torn down and Gates said his design was influenced by the power of music played in churches in his hometown and across the world.
Bailey-Rae, who has worked with Gates before, said her performance in October is the latest expression of the pair’s “deep relationship”.
She said: “I did sing in church when I was younger and I guess that was a big influence on me but a lot of people think of it as being a historic black church but I grew up in this white Baptist church in suburbia in Leeds and our main influence was guitar music and our youth pastor bought me my first electric guitar.
“This bell is going to be at the front of the chapel and it’s going to be sounded and toll the live events and we’ll bring that into the music.”
The building, which will also host performances from a London church choir and Mercury Prize-nominated jazz musician Moses Boyd, is open to the elements with a hole in its roof letting in light.
Bailey-Rae said: “The fact that it’s a space that is designated for gathering and participation and mediation means the music will be really influence by who is there and what everyone brings.
“The way it’s open to the elements, especially in Britain, means whatever is happening outside is happening inside and that is part of the attraction, the sense of being lost in the space and being reduced to nothing.
“To not have eyes on me doesn’t bother me at all.
“I’m very happy to imagine I’ll be lost in the space and there will be room for the music and the vibration of the music and what the building brings”.
The musician said she is currently finishing a “side-project” inspired by another of Gates’ projects The Stony Island Arts Bank – a disused bank building he has transformed into a gallery and archive that is home to exhibits including the record collection of legendary Chicago house DJ Frankie Knuckles.
The pavilion opens on June 10 until October 16.
