Light and dark
Location: Kaldor Hall, ground level
Free, no bookings required
Eighth Blackbird musicians Lina Andonovska (flute) and Matthew Duvall (percussion) will team up with Ensemble Offspring artists Claire Edwardes (percussion) and Lamorna Nightingale (flute) to perform works by Andy Akiho, Brenda Gifford, Philip Glass, Molly Joyce, Ella Macens and Ned McGowan. The selected compositions reflect colour, shape, movement and shades of light and dark through sound, reflecting Kandinsky’s own interest in the abstract forms of music.
Order of performance:
Brenda Gifford ‘Mungala’ (2018)
Philip Glass ‘Piece in the shape of a square’ (1967–68)
Ella Macens ‘Colour burst’ (2017)
Ned McGowan ‘Ricochet’ (2016)
Andy Akiho ‘Karakurenai’ (2007)
Wednesday 17 January 2024
7.30–8.30pm
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Settle in for some sensorially rich evenings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales this summer with a free program of performances celebrating the importance of music to the art and thought of Vasily Kandinsky.
Featuring commissioned compositions alongside classics from the early 20th century, Klänge (meaning ‘sounds’ in German) is a series of live music sessions, co-curated with percussionist and composer Claire Edwardes OAM and performed by virtuosic members of Sydney’s Ensemble Offspring in collaboration with Grammy award–winning, Chicago-based group Eighth Blackbird.
Kandinsky explored the synergies between painting and music, and considered music’s abstract language a model for a new form of abstraction in painting. Using colour and form to elicit the sensations aroused through vibration, pitch and the duration of sound, he referred to kläng (‘sound’) throughout his writings and, on occasion, in the titles of his works. To Kandinsky, ‘sound’ was interchangeable with the notion of ‘inner resonance’ or ‘spiritual vibration’.
Klänge presents musical compositions that will riff and swirl in relation to the artist’s paintings presented in the Kandinsky exhibition at the Art Gallery.
Live music program
Klänge
Wednesdays 7.30pm
10 January – 14 February 2024
Art Gallery of New South Wales
South Building
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