JOHN ASLANIDIS
SONIC NETWORK

JULY 4 – AUGUST 10 2013

Gallery Kai Hilgemann, Berlin is excited to welcome Melbourne based artist John Aslanidis for an exhibition of new work along side his large scale painting Sonic Network no.12 oil and acryl on canvas 244x305cm (8x10ft).

Sound Spheres

For over twenty years artist John Aslanidis has defined a space between sound and vision, through seeking to create “paintings you can hear and sound you can see”. His paintings take the form of numerous interlocking and exponentially expanding concentric circles that are painstakingly mapped and masked out, and evolve from an intersection between music and painting. This stream of artistic interrogation has a historical lineage that stretches back to the beginning of the 20th century and the birth of international modernism, yet the musical genre that Aslanidis responds to is rooted in the electronic music movement that came to prominence in the 1990s. Creating paintings of vibrational vibrancy that actively engage with the science and perception of sound – his work reflects a confluence of visual and aural stimuli that also mirrors the phenomena of synesthesia, where the senses become blended. These are paintings that are experienced by the body, and as such reclaim a contemplative awareness of the senses within the rush and tumble of the digital consumer age.

There are a number of analogies between music and the way Aslanidis constructs his paintings. The most obvious is his labour intensive process of masking out and exposing individual concentric circles, which are subsequently painted to create alternating curved lines of colour and tone. This results in a rhythmic oscillation between different colours that gives visual form to the pulse of a beat. The complexity is compounded when large masses of concentric circles overlap, perhaps suggesting the confluence of more than one bass line present in electronic music. This merge of larger forms often creates a moiré pattern in the work, which is an unpredictable outcome that in musical terms simulates the audible interference that occurs when two frequencies of a lower sonic register (like bass-lines) move in and out of consonance.

Another striking parallel between music and Aslanidis’ art is the system of intervals, or access points, that he created in 1991 which govern the structure of his compositions. He has formulated an algorithm that mathematically positions the centre point in relation to one another for each of the radiating circles that traverse his works. This geometrical device acts as a foundation ripe for endless improvisations and alterations, depending on where and how he positions the points on the canvas. This in itself mirrors the way a musical score is structured, through a system of regulated intervals between notes which coalesce to form a whole.

The aesthetic of Aslanidis’ work also draws upon physical phenomena present within nature. Much like the incursion of an object into water that creates infinitely expanding ripples, sound waves are essentially just vibrating air, and it is as if Aslanidis gives visual form to these invisible vibrations that cause auditory experience. His paintings that theoretically could continue to grow infinitely following the repetition of the process as each circle is laid upon the next, are limited only by the edge of the canvas. As such they seem to “capture a fragment of infinity”, a conscious motive in his art.

excerpt: ‘Sound Spheres’ by Marguerite Brown, for Art Monthly Australia

Aslanidis has also collaborated with sound artist Brian May exhibiting sound / painting installations in Melbourne and Sydney Australia, Berlin and New York

In the lead up to this exhibition Aslanidis has recently completed a large scale painting commissioned by the Arts Centre Melbourne, Sonic Network no. 11 (2012) for Hamer Hall through the Maxwell and Merle Carroll Bequest.