The Sound of Swirlies
In collaboration with Kika Pierides

For this unique collaboration, I was invited by fellow colourist and Contemporary Patternist, Kika Pierides, to create a sound piece based on one of her paintings from the Swirlies series - part of her upcoming retrospective at the Cyprus High Commissioner’s Residence in London, called The Art of Balance

While my work typically begins with interpreting classical music into visual form, this project reversed the process. I had to translate visual cues such as shapes, colours and spacing, into sound. Although Kika’s work is spontaneous and abstract, I approached it with the same logic-driven, structured mindset I use when translating scores by Bach. I devised a custom framework to assign notes and rhythms, but remained rooted in the traditional 8-tone scale used for centuries in Western music.

The result is more than a piece of music. It’s an audible drawing. A layered response that explores my ongoing question: how do you draw music?

In the sound piece, you’ll hear each swirlie - pink and lilac - sounded individually, then grouped by colour. When pink and lilac swirls overlap in the painting, their corresponding tones also converge in the piece. Finally, the composition unfolds in full, from left to right - just as the eye moves across the canvas.

Images of my process are shown below, along with the sound piece 🔊