Ali Barker Merseyside, United Kingdom

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My work expresses music and sound in colour. I create abstract paintings, mixed-media work and installations inspired by my personal experiences of sound-colour synaesthesia – when I listen to music, each note of the musical scale is perceived as a specific colour. I completed my MA in Fine Art (Distinction) in December 2019. In my spare time I am a musician, playing violin and viola.

My experiences of synaesthesia and my musical background both influence my work. I use a fixed palette of colours to represent the colours I perceive through my experiences of sound-colour synaesthesia. (There are many types of synaesthesia, a phenomenon in which a stimulus to one sense consistently and uniquely evokes automatic, conscious perceptions in a different sense.) My practice is focused around the use of paint on a variety of surfaces including canvas, wood, and paper, although I sometimes incorporate coloured fabric or thread into my work.

The musical repertoire I perform often influences my choice of music to work from (although for commissions the music is usually chosen by the client). There is also an emphasis on the use of process in my work, evident in my geometric paintings transcribing music or recorded sounds. I aim to balance the integrity of my translational processes from my musical perspective with visual compositional decisions of colour and form. My current work explores layering themes, rhythm, pattern, and the complexity of music, creating outcomes that I consider represent the essence of the original music, yet outwardly appear visually abstract.

Recent and forthcoming exhibitions include: 'Ensemble', a solo show in The Landing Gallery, The Atkinson, Southport (24 June-22 July 2023); 'Musicals to Mahler', a solo show at Cass Art, Liverpool (June 2022); 'Music-Colour-Paint', a solo show and residency at Arena Studios and Gallery, Liverpool (July-Sept 2021); and 'Expression Through Colour', a 2-person show held in Liverpool Anglican Cathedral (Sept-Oct 2020). My first solo show was held in Liverpool in 2016 and I regularly exhibit in a variety of group shows across North West England; in 2018 I won the Student Prize at the Lancashire Open Exhibition. Originally from Sheffield, I studied for my undergraduate degree in Pharmacy at the University of Bradford, before moving to Merseyside in 1995. After a 20-year career in community pharmacy, I left to pursue my artistic ambitions full time, completing my MA in Fine Art (Distinction) at the University of Chester in December 2019.

I am also inspired by skylines and other structures in the landscape, from complex cityscapes to rock formations or man-made structures such as a bridge dominating a horizon; however I choose to omit much of the detail and represent these as simplified forms. In 2011 I won Merseytravel’s Art on the Network competition ‘Design a New Skyline’, for the Queensway (Birkenhead) Tunnel. My ‘Liverpool Composition’ and ‘Wirral Composition’ designs were made into murals on the new cladding, approximately 5m high and 22m wide, and are public artworks on permanent display at each end of the tunnel.