Art as a feast of the senses

Have we not all been able to smell certain passages in a book, or feel the pain and the joy contained in its pages?

I recently attended an art show by a synaesthetic artist who connected each colour and shape with other sensory functions. Synaesthetic people are born with the ability to perceive connections between different shades of colour, sound tones, smell intensities and tastes without even trying.

We are all synaesthetic somehow: every picture we take is meant to make us reminisce; it allows us to relive a certain moment in time and the sensations it brought about (a certain smell, the way that something feels or tastes…).

To which extent does our gaze focus solely on the shapes, the colours, or the relationship between all the elements in an art work?

I want to explore free, even unconscious associations that art pieces can generate. If a work of art has the power to transport us to another time, then it becomes multi temporary: it allows us to live in the now, in the back then, and also in the future that is yet to come, all at once. If a piece can also evoke other sensations, then it becomes skin, music, food and perfume as well. All we need to do is pay attention, look closely until we can see the underlying thought that is shaped by the senses and by time in all its dimensions; art is nothing but an ever-changing scheme that is constantly expanding from the centre outwards. It is all about processing the feelings, the emotions and the information that our senses can register and that language cannot interpret or represent.

Toño Barreiro