Around 10,000 Australians understand the world through the lens of synaesthesia, a condition where the five senses of sound, taste, smell and sight touch fuse together in fascinating ways, including seeing sound in swirls of undulating colour. Multi-sensory artist Daniel O’Toole has attempted to convey his own experience of the condition with his latest exhibition, Deliquescent Light.
Former street artist O’Toole says the show, opening at Redfern Gallery Curatorial and Co on February 10 for ten days, aims to visualise how he perceives music, with the colours in his glowing paintings and videos representing how he sees sound and light interacting. Visitors will also be able to bliss out to a soundtrack he has scored for the gallery viewing. And if you dig it, you’ll also be able to snap up a limited-edition vinyl with unique artwork covers, with only 100 pressed. The sonic addition has been designed to complement the works, drawing your attention to the passage of time and how light behaves.
“I blur the line between disciplines, always looking for an outcome which unites the various aspects of my practice in a cohesive way,” he says. “Kinetic distortion, the movement of shadows, the way that sunlight and water react in different vessels, modulation of light waves or soundwaves – these nuanced micro-events that can be easily missed in everyday life form the focus of my time-based works. I use painting to suspend these moments of beauty.”
Sophie Vander, founder and director of Curatorial and Co, is pumped to present his work. “There’s something incredibly unique and exciting about Daniel O’Toole’s new work, offering a glimpse inside his mind during the creation process as he visualises sound and light through colour. Audiences will be intrigued and delighted by how Daniel’s work engages all of our senses.”
