Tiko Kerr in his studio - 14 March 2024

The Musicality of Seeing

Music has always been central to my artistic practice. I work with headphones on all day long. Music keeps me moving.

I like all types of music although the improvisational nature of jazz really suits my love of chance and experimentation when I create.

Over time I have become very interested in synesthesia: how one human sense can come through as another. I’m drawn to the idea of interpreting music in visual terms and vice versa.

I aim to create compositions that keep the eye restlessly roaming all over the work, in the same way that the ear is pulled along through the peaks and troughs of a symphony.

I call this the musicality of seeing.

This relief wall sculpture is a series of paper-cut collage forms and drawing elements mounted on 3 layers of plexiglass with a slight gap between them. I’ve translated the ubiquitous pandemic protective barrier of plexiglass into a window into our contemporary moment.

The work is activated by the position the viewer takes. Forms come forward and others recede in a type of breathing.

Tiko Kerr - 2024

 “Schwitter’s Symphony #8” (above) is my homage to the incredible collage pioneer from the beginning of the 20th Century, Kurt Schwitters.

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In this 21st century it has become almost impossible to have a face to face communication (not on Messenger,etc) so I found it astounding and pleasant to have been invited today to my friend artist Tiko Kerr's studio. It is a large one that is has sections for each medium that he may feel like using. Because he dealt with the death of Jack Shadbolt's wife, Doris in having to put stuff where it belonged, he inherited Jack Shadbolt's favourite seat.

Somehow Kerr and I have at least been friends since the beginning of this century. He is prolific and never does anything for long without adjusting to something different. One day he came to my little Kits studio and I took a few portraits. He asked me to make about 6 different prints. I gave him the prints and on three he snipped pieces from the other three to make his collages. The one reproduced here I chose as he told me it was his favourite of the three

We call this work (in Spanish) a colaboración. I have a feeling we are going to make a few more soon.

Sometime around 2008 I convinced Georgia Straight editor Charles Campbell to put a Kerr painting of the Lions Gate Bridge (in full colour) on the cover. I have very little memory as to why I have this 9 exposure b+w contact sheet in my Tiko Kerr file. But I know that the young woman seen holding the painting is our mutual friend Anne Macauley who worked at the Dianne Farris Gallery. Perhaps I also photographed the painting with slide film and Campbell did not return it.