Chladni
Accumulation in pigment

Chladni1_sRGB

Five-part series “Chladni”, Pigment on cotton paper, 50 × 50 cm, 2025

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Chladni1_Detail

"Chladni 1", Pigment on cotton paper, 50 × 50 cm, 2025

Chladni5_Detail
Chladni5_sRGB_

"Chladni 5", Pigment on cotton paper, 50 × 50 cm, 2025

Chladni_Wall
Chladni2_sRGB_
Chladni3_sRGB
Chladni4_sRGB

"Chladni 2", "Chladni 3", "Chladni 4", Pigment on cotton paper, 50 × 50 cm, 2025

Chadni1_Detail2
FigureChladni

Chladni
Accumulation in pigment

The work Chladni is based on the research of German physicist and astronomer Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni, who in 1787 became the first to make sound visible. Inspired by these historical sound experiments, I developed a five-part series of forms derived from the interplay between sound and matter. Using pure pigment on paper, I preserve the fleeting traces of sound – translated into a silent, visual language.

In the 18th century, Chladni pioneered a systematic method for visualizing sound waves. The figures named after him – the Chladni patterns – emerge when fine sand is scattered onto a metal plate and the plate is bowed with a violin bow. The sand gathers along the nodal lines of vibration, forming geometric patterns. I take up this principle, reinterpret and transform it: the resulting forms translate the invisible structures of sound into visible compositions on paper.

Unlike in my previous drawing-based works, for this series I extracted pigment from chalk pastels, ground it finely, and applied it in multiple sifted layers directly onto paper without any binding agents. The result is a fragile surface made of countless pigment particles that, depending on the light, cast delicate shadows and transform the white into a range of nuanced tones. The organic forms, excerpts, and free interpretations of Chladni’s figures open up shifting perspectives: depending on the light, the pigment objects appear in varying shades of white – at times emerging sculpturally from the paper, at others merging with the surface and nearly disappearing. The sound figures behave like quiet voices: sometimes distinct, sometimes faint – and at times falling completely silent.

Chladni renders the invisible order of sound poetically perceptible through visual form.

Stefan Macheiner
Studio: Lederergasse 67, 4020 Linz, Austria
hello@stefan-macheiner.com
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