Audible Chroma - gallery roomsheet
Audible Chroma
Sharon & Tim Roberts
This exhibition presents paintings and music which are the fruit of our collaborative project, exploring relationships between music and colour. Initially we discussed wavelengths of light and sound; common terms which relate to music and to visual art; and the work of earlier artists. However when we came across the avante garde colour/music films of early filmmakers, including Oskar Fischinger and Jordan Belsen, this increased our interest in synaesthesia (the crossing over of senses) and the emotional link between colour and music.
Roland Wakelin's and Roy de Maistre's "Colour Music" exhibition in 1919 has been of great interest to us, but we have taken a different approach from the artists in the past who have made systems using colour wheels with overlays, or associated specific notes with hues. Rather, we have created works which each relate to a single colour and while each has been created as an individual response, it is our intention that together they would have a unity of expression which is greater than each individual work, be it music or painting.
While we don't claim to experience synaesthesia to a significant extent, the colour has a physical place relative to the body - and so does a sound - and that becomes the point of connection for us.
In the practical outworking of this project we have each worked with the stimulus of primary and secondary colours, black and white. Sharon painted canvases with single colours, considering her emotional response to the colour, its energy and direction. This informed both the technical and intuitive aspects of creating the work, the gestures and physical application of the paint, and the use of contrasts in tone, temperature and intensity within the painting.
Tim has created music which expresses his emotive response to each colour. Instrumentation of each work has been selected for its timbre and expressive quality with instrumentation varying from orchestral to electronic. Each composition leads the listener on a journey through emotions connected with each colour. Tim has composed, performed, recorded, produced and mastered, with each stage being focussed on musical expression of each of the colours.
The exhibition, is not intended to be display of isolated artworks and pieces of music, but a synergistic whole, where the works together have a unity and cohesion resulting from - and continuing - the dialogue which has taken place over the past four years.
The track playing in the gallery is a compilation of selected excerpts from each of the pieces. The complete Audible Chroma musical work is available on loan, from the front desk, to listen to in the gallery.