Expression II
with artists Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq and Lisa Harker
“The gold swirly lines represent royalty ….”
The word ‘Expression’ in music literally means ‘everything’ – the overall subject of music performance.
In the second part of the project EXPRESSION, both professional artists Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq (Deaf) and Lisa Harker (hearing) were told the story behind the music; the composer Waseem Kotoub’s background in the Gulf, the title “The Magic of the East’, the piece being written for flute, violin, viola and cello, and it being based on Arabic themes and ideas.
It was interesting to see if feeding the artist’s minds with information about the music affected the art produced.
Artist Lisa Harker says that when she was listening to the music, she was mainly responding to the ‘feel’ and the energy of the piece to create her work.
Lisa began pasting the background in purple, her strokes were brushing in time to the music. Next she added splashes of blue, dark purples . The gold swirly lines represent royalty, it was warm with feelings of ‘importance’ and togetherness. Her overall composition looks like a rug which is commonly found in Arabic cultures hanging up on display.
Rubbena’s, colour choices were based on four individual instruments - flute, violin, viola and cello – the reds, greens, blues and yellows. The large thick line denotes strong sounds, and the yellows are the lightness coming from the singing flute. In the middle there is a noticeably dark round circular ring to show that she felt the music was going round and round, and being repeated.
On the whole, there is a sense of lightness in the composition, as if energies are light, free and flying around.
Rubbena said she felt the music was more meaningful having to know the story, and it is interesting to realise that by giving information, it has the power to help with decision making in creating an art form. The event was filmed to show what the music sounded like and how the artists responded to the works.
1st image by Lisa Harker, 2nd image by Deaf Artist Rubbena Aurangzeb-Tariq
