Gwendolyn Kassenaar at LightSounds 2024

Gwendolyn Kassenaar
Rich Mix
LightSounds 2024
London, United Kingdom
November 23, 2024

The weekend of Saturday November 23rd and Sunday November 24th saw the annual LightSounds festival which, instead of being a mere offshoot of music or visual art, positions audiovisual art at the center of the creative universe. This year, the festival was opened by keynote speaker Gwendolyn Kassenaar, herself a visual artist who has long championed cross-fertilisation between music and visual arts. Other London-based visual artists such as Gina Southgate, Claire Zakiewicz, Aurelie Freoua and Alison Gardiner all support such cross-fertilisation, in some cases extending it further to include dance and spoken word.

For her keynote speech, Kassenaar went much further than championing cross-fertilisation between music and visual art, instead giving a well-planned talk entitled "Convergencies: Art , Improvisation & Synaesthesia" which delved into history with quotes from Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Miles Davis and others. Just as fascinating, if not more so, was a biographical section in which Kassenaar spoke about her own experience of synaesthesia (in which one sense comes through as another—for example certain music pitches being seen as a particular colour) and its effect on her art. This was certainly the section of the speech which attracted most interest and audience questions after the speech.

After the speech and questions, Kassenaar, her easel and crayons were joined on stage by a trio of Sue Lynch on tenor saxophone or flute, Jack Campbell on prepared violin and Jacek Buhl on drums. As the trio improvised, Kassenaar used the crayons to draw what their sounds created in her mind. Throughout, the audience sat transfixed, watching on a big screen what was being created on stage (see picture above). By the end of the session, Kassenaar had produced three separate art works, all beautiful in their way. As soon as the music stopped, the audience were on their feet, applauding at length. A truly excellent way to kick off the festival.

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