LIGHT IN MUSIC: A SYNESTHETIC EXPERIENCE

By Piper Ainsley on October 31, 2018

A creative collaboration exploring the intersections of original musical compositions and the art of light and space, Gallery 263 presents Light In Music, an evening with musicians and composers Julian Loida and Kelly Lenahan, and previously exhibiting artist Piper Ainsley. Through the artists’ shared sensory lens of synesthesia comes an event in which luminous sculptural form plays off the swell of melodic, reverberant song.

Synesthesia is a neurological condition in which the senses cross and combine, leading the synesthete to have multi-sensory experiences.  Seeing sound, hearing color, and tasting textures are just a few of the many ways that synesthesia can be experienced. It is a rare condition, and few studies have been taken on it, but for the synesthete, the power and vivacity of it cannot be denied.  Synesthesia manifests itself in different ways in each synesthete, and each experience can be completely unique from the previous. While this condition is a highly individualized and personal experience, it is a beautiful phenomenon that these three artists are seeking to share with the public.  Light in Music brings together three synesthetes, each with a different manifestation of their crossed senses, to collaborate, to share, and to create with each other, through the lenses of their own synesthetic worlds.  The premiere of this groundbreaking collaboration brings together light artist and architect Piper Ainsley, keyboardist Kelly Lenahan, and percussionist Julian Loida, and will feature the original compositions and works of all three artists.

The music of the collaboration features Julian and Kelly on vibraphone, percussion, piano, and synthesizer, inspired and drawn from their work as an electro-acoustic duo, Loida & Lenahan.   

Julian Loida and Kelly Lenahan are conservatory-trained classical musicians who found common ground in their passion for cross-genre collaboration.  Julian, an award-winning classical percussionist, is also a highly skilled Afro-Cuban drummer, cajon player, and multimedia artist, and is in the midst of recording and releasing two solo albums of mallet percussion.  Kelly, a classical pianist, has toured with rock, folk, and bluegrass bands as a multi-faceted keyboardist, and carries her classical training into the way she works with electronics. Both Kelly and Julian experience color and visual forms when they perform, compose, and listen to music, and the music you will hear is the auditory expression of these visuals.  

Piper Ainsley’s art practice assumes light’s universal capacity to elicit experiences of reflection, wonder, and the sublime.  She creates light-based form and place to unite viewers in innate corporeal and emotional reactions to natural phenomena.  For Light in Music, the artist calls on her synesthetic experience of sound as color and form to shape the sculpture, called “Delta”, around the compositions of the collaborating musicians.  Her narrative has evolved from fine arts and architecture training at RISD, as well as experience as an architect and, previously, a humanitarian. Her work is based in the conviction that the dimensional art of light and space which matured in minimalism can offer more than abstract experience, and can instead offer opportunities to deepen sense of the human collective.

Gallery 263 hosted this sonic and visual exploration of synesthesia on November 3, 2018. Are you interested in attending events like this at Gallery 263? Visit our calendar to learn more about other upcoming shows and performances.