John Aslanidis, Sonic network no. 19, 2022. Oil and acrylic on canvas, 305 × 488cm. Courtesy: the artist and Gallery 9, Sydney.

Gallery 9 presents works by John Aslanidis.

“For Aslanidis, it’s a figuring of sound – not sound directly, but the fact that sonic waves pass through objects and the atmosphere, revealing both that apparently solid matter is permeable and that the seemingly immaterial atmosphere has a certain weight and density. Sound travels through space, reminding us that our world is traversed by forces that are invisible but not necessarily inaudible to us…

…Aslanidis says that he is painting “sound”, which of course puts him in a lineage that starts with Paul Klee‘s ‘In the Style of Bach’, 1919 and Wassily Kandinsky‘s ‘Compositions and Improvisations’. But Aslanidis is interested in sound not so much as a principle of composition, but as a principle of anti-composition; that which cuts against any attempt to order or regulate it. But paradoxically he does so through the most rigorous attempt to divide up and section his canvasses, and what he is trying to represent is precisely what crosses this.” – Rex Butler, Art Collector Issue 104.

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