Needle Drop

We Gon Be Alright - mixed media with gilding on linen, 2024. AshWan

I make visual art based around rhythm, pattern and texture.

But I don’t just make visual art. What’s important to me is to create.

I’ve always played with sound too and music remains a huge inspiration.

Often I’ve used the phrase “a visual Tao of that boom bap sound” to describe what I do.

In the 90s I worked a lot as a DJ, mainly in Newcastle Upon Tyne. I loved it. As a result I’d spend hours in record shops. I’d go grab a stack of new 12”s and take them over to the turntable. One by one I’d drop the needle and know almost instantly if I was going to buy that slice:

The Rhythm, pattern, texture.

All A Dream - Upcycled cardboard street intervention, 2015. by AshWan

That’s also how I thought about my earlier abstract paintings.

The moment your eye meets the canvas. The moment the needle drops and your spirit connects visually or sonically.

Same thing.

Within seconds I would know.

Within seconds people should know.

I Used To Love HER - mixed media with oil paint on canvas. circa 2005. AshWan

Not necessarily whether it’s good or bad.

Whether there’s a connection.

An energy.

I lost interest in representation years ago. Once I was able to achieve a certain level, it stopped holding my attention. What continues to interest me is something less tangible. The point where order and disruption meet. The moment a surface begins to carry energy.

When I’m working in the studio, the process feels surprisingly similar to making music. Layers are added and removed. Marks repeat. Patterns emerge. Surfaces become quieter or more intense. Elements are reduced until only the essentials remain.

Words Were Very Nice - mixed media with gilding on paper, 100x70cm. 2026 by AshWan

The decisions are visual, but the instinct behind them often feels closer to listening than looking.

I’ve realised that many of the qualities I respond to in music are the same qualities I pursue in my work: rhythm, tension, repetition, restraint, control and surprise.

The finished piece becomes a record of those decisions.

Not an illustration of music.

Not a translation of a particular song.

Not synesthesia.

Not simply the “stylistic continuity” described by Tricia Rose in Black Noise, though perhaps it touches on some of the same territory.

More a visual trace.

A search for a rhythm that feels right.

Maybe I’m not really making visual art.

Maybe I’m making music and just using a different instrument.

Thanks for listening!

Ash