This past weekend I saw an interesting gallery show in Soho. Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson took a piece of poetry written by his wife and set it to music. The solo exhibition titled “The Visitors” is made up of a group of 9 musicians to each featured on nine separate screens, all simultaneously playing the same piece together. It was recorded in a decaying 200-year-old mansion in the Hudson Valley. As you wander through the darkened gallery space, you listen to each individual musician, with their part highlighted on a screen.
The piece begins with Kjartansson in a bath strumming on a guitar. The 8 other screens are from different rooms in the mansion. Each room is soon filled with another musician and soon they are all singing and playing a beautiful song. Filmed in one take, the film makes you feel like you're actually in the house watching this as it happens.
http://www.luhringaugustine.com/exhibitions/ragnar-kjartansson_1
http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/features/ragnar-kjartansson/
