LOUISE ISACKSON ‘SHAPES OF MUSIC’


Louise Isackson’s journey expresses her deep knowledge and love of music into visual form. Combined with a design background she delivers the vivid musical qualities of colour, shape and tonality.

Shapes of Music unveils a vibrant body of work that explores colour and form and how colour and sound intersect. The exhibition encompasses a variety of artworks that are composed of overlapping coloured shapes that are assembled to reveal a relief shadow effect. These shapes converge to reflect the rhythm, resonance, tonality and sensation of hearing music.

In Shapes of Music Isackson draws from the history of crossmodal research spanning over 100 years. She delves into pitch, tonality and hue while embracing the ideologies of a Bauhaus design aesthetic. An ever-unfolding parallel between art and music may include lightness-quietness, gradients-harmony and brightness-loudness––all attributes of the visual with the auditive. Isackson’s rich background in music performance and songwriting infuses her art practice with rhythmic vitality, and her sensibility to the deeper impact and sensation of colour.

With the playful application of relief shapes that create an almost three-dimensional surface, viewers are invited to engage with art that bridges two senses—sight and sound—in a refreshing, immersive way.

Louise Isackson ‘Shapes of Music’

17 January until 2 February 2025

Opening Event Saturday 18 January 2025 @3pm RSVP HERE

VIEW CATALOGUE

My background in music and performance plays an important part in my art practice. Somehow the playful approach to image- making is similar to writing a melody for a song. I’m always analysing how to merge musical ideas into the materials that best align these thoughts and ideas.

Born into a musical family, I was taught music theory and played piano from an early age through to adulthood. I’m fascinated by the scope of ideas to blend music, design and art.

Music and Colour can be paired in many interesting ways that include resonance, harmony, melody, rhythm, tonality and composition. Many of these sensory parallels have been proven by historical artists in this abstract tradition (Kandinsky, Klee, Albers). Working with the correlation between music and sound I’m experimenting through the language of geometry to define colour consonance and dissonance.

I’m endlessly thrilled with the state of improvisational play that is similar to playing or writing music. The artworks are either interpreting sound descriptions, or titled with the language of musical notation, or movements from classical or Jazz music.

My work aims to visually capture many elements related to music. Mostly, I’m expressing ideas about harmonic tone, melodies, note intervals, pitch, tempo, resonance, volume and composition.

I am compelled by the visceral effects of colour while exploring a range of materials to make shapes of colour exploring music in art.
— Louise Isackson