Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Hugged by music

I went to a great new exhibition today in my lunch break.  There was a room full of Milan Mrkosich,
some of whose works remind me a little of Kandinsky (just a little - it's those little geometric shapes that somehow look miles deep ). There were several rooms full of Seraphine Pick, who does those scratchy paintings as well as spooky Hieronymous Bosch-inspired pictures like this one:
But the highlight was set within a sound-proofed room containing nothing but two benches in the middle of a circle of fortyy speakers on stands. Minutes after I walked in, a recording started playing; it was Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui, a Renaissance piece I'd never heard of, sung by a choir. You're supposed to walk around the speakers and hear the differences in the sounds that emanate from each one, but I didn't bother. I just leaned against a column and let the wonderful singing embrace me. It was eleven minutes of loveliness.

I think I might go back tomorrow.

6 comments:

Antoinette said...

Sounds divine! Think how much better each afternoon would be if we could experience such a memorable 11 minutes every day.

Watson Woodworth said...

That sounds lovely.

Violet said...

Yeah it made me realise how much I miss by not being a classical music fan.

Angela said...

I bet that was a great sress reliever.

We have surround sound in the TV room and I just love that.

LK said...

I saw a Milan Mrkusich exhibition recently and I agree with you about certain pieces being very Kandinsky like. The other artist I was reminded of to a lesser degree was Mark Rothko with the way they both treat the big blocks of colour.

The music though made me smile, I've begun to listen to alot of classical music recently and it can be quite an ethereal sound.

Violet said...

angela: yes, I think it would be a good idea for me to listen to it a lot more :-)

tiki: you're right, some pieces were Rothko-like, though I didn't think of him at first. Maybe it's because quite a few artists have done the colour block thing since him (including Ralph Hotere, who kinda took it to an extreme).