Colour
Music has opened at Drill Hall Gallery in Canberra, Australia. The exhibition
(14 August to 28 September 2014) is a collection of works from several artists,
all focusing on the connection between visual art and music. The pieces span
almost a century, starting with a piece from 1919 and concluding with 2014
artworks. The framework for contemporary artists includes historical works from
Roy de Maistre (1894-1968), Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack (1893-1965), Jozef
Stanislaus Ostoja-Kotkowski (1922-1994), and Frank Hinder (1906-1992). For
example, Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack’s Optical Spinning Top (with 7 colour blend
rings) in wood and printed card is circa 1960. In a separate room is the light
show extravaganza by Botborg called Neural Luminance Amplifier (2104) - a three
channel DVD (photograph below).
The
paintings – they are not computer-generated – experiment with light, kinetics,
and musical collaborations. These include pieces from John Aslanides, such as
Sonic Networks no. 13 (2013) and Sonic Networks no. 14 (2014), oil on canvas, shown
below.
Two
of John Nixon’s pieces include Colour Rhythm Disks 1-6 (2009) which include 6
disks, MDF panels and turntable on a table, and Colour Music (2006-2010) which
is a series of 28 panels of enamel on MDF in conjunction with a Yamaha electric
piano coloured with wooden blocks (shown below).
David
Sequeria exhibits Symphonic Poem (2014), gouache on composition sheets – 48 sheets
form the artwork (below).
On
Friday August 15 the Artists in Conversation included participating artists
with Drill Hall Gallery curator, Tony Oates. Oates described the works as “forward
thinking objects” that embrace technology, “linking the beginnings of
abstraction to the relevance of kinetic art today.” For example, the light
boxes on display were made before video was invented.
John
Nixon articulated his inspiration for the Colour Rhythm Disks – “I had an idea
of implied movement – what would happen if you make the painting move … I like
trad jazz with a line-up of six people, six instruments, so this was the
starting point for me [for his 28 panels on Colour Music].”
David
Sequeria explained how he worked at his dining table on the individual 48
composition sheets. Seeing them installed all together gives the pieces an
altogether different appearance. John Aslanidis found his Sonic Networks
challenging “working with compositional points to underpin the work” which was “purely
improvisation” – although it was the algorithm that gave the works their
structure. His works were also inspired by the vibrations of electric music
that is both harmonizing and fracturing.
Comments
Post a Comment