INIK
The interplay of sound and colour is at the heart of Swiss contemporary expressionist painter INIK’s artwork.
INIK is a lover and producer of electronic music. Having been introduced to the genre during his teenage years, it has played an influential role in his life and art.
The method for creating his artworks, which he calls ‘electronic music painting’, is refreshing and innovative. To apply paint to either the canvas or acrylic glass panels, he uses his beat colour machine. The beat colour machine is a device that INIK personally engineered. The machine is connected to INIK’s midi sampler or keyboard, releasing paint on to the canvas from a range of silos containing paint from above. Every colour is assigned a note or sample. When a particular note or sample is played, the paint is released from the silo and energetically dropped onto the canvas resting below. When the set has ended, a compelling visualisation of the music that played is produced. INIK’s artworks encapsulate the rhythm, drama and intensity of the sounds that he produces without ever actually handling the paint.
“When an artist plays in a club or at a festival, there is nothing physically left at the end. After I finish a set, I have an artwork that visually documents the experience. It looks different every time, just as every lived moment is unique. It is the colour of sound.”
