The Art Of Capturing Sound…Visually

The Art Of Capturing Sound…Visually

Having grown up learning the customary art of Taonga Puoro (traditional Maori musical instruments), Israel Birch sought to capture the elegant, haunting, vibratory sound of the instruments he plays, in a visual media. He has achieved this in his arresting, holographic-effect, artwork, not by picking up an adze and carving into wood, but by picking up a grinder and ‘carving’ into steel. A decade of perfecting his process of incorporating layers of lacquer and paint over ground steel, has resulted in groundbreaking exhibitions in Wellington, Melbourne and Vancouver over the last three years.

This year’s exhibition at Page Blackie Gallery, entitled Te Kauru O Te Rangi, after the Chief of the same name (who signed the Treaty of Waitangi on behalf of the artist’s Iwi, Ngati Kahungnu), further celebrates Birch’s exploration of movement and colour, as though each work claims an individual musical note and creates a wall of sound, within the Gallery.

ENDS

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