By Lauren Hogan
July 7, 2009
This article was originally published by Smithsonian Magazine. The full article can be read here.
“I asked my love to take a walk, to take a walk, to take a walk, Down beside where the waters flow, Down by the banks of the Ohio...”
It’s pretty rare for someone to walk through the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden and hear music playing. It’s even rarer for the music to be an actual exhibit at the Garden. But now when visitors go to ponder the Rodins or attempt to solve a Kooning, they’ll leave contemplating a new beat.
Recently, the Sculpture Garden acquired “Sunset Song,” the first sound artwork located in the sculpture garden. The installment, by Susan Philipsz, is made up of two speakers with two audio tracks, one which features a male character and the other, a female character. Philipsz sings both tracks a capella.
So where exactly is the art in a piece like this?
Photograph courtesy of the museum.
“Drawn to the notion of thinking we could enhance our sculpture garden in a more contemporary direction and engage visitors in a different sense, beyond sight, beyond vision,” answers Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Kristen Hileman. “It was interesting to reintroduce the idea of a narrative in contemporary art and see how by telling a story Susan Philipz elicits an emotional response in viewers.”
