“Since 2011, the Museum of Contemporary Art has hosted visual artists to develop unusual projects through the museum’s artist-in-residence program,” writes John von Rhein in Wednesday’s (10/21) Chicago Tribune. “But this season marks a departure for the museum: Beginning this fall and ending in June, eighth blackbird will serve as a living art installation at the MCA, interacting aurally with museum patrons whose aesthetic orientation is mainly visual…. ‘At one of our first open rehearsals, people walked into the gallery and thought it was a special event to which they were not invited,’ [percussionist Matthew Duvall] said…. ‘They began to realize the whole point is for them to come in and be able to understand how we put these pieces together. We ask them what they think of the music. We can just tell they feel involved—that doesn’t usually happen when they are sitting in a concert hall.’ … The ensemble’s MCA residency will include performances of ‘Hand Eye,’ a collaboration with the six-composer collective Sleeping Giant, Jan. 23-24; and the Chicago premieres of Bryce Dessner’s ‘Murder Ballades’ and David T. Little’s ‘Ghostlight,’ March 25-26.”
Posted October 22, 2015
