{"id":13021,"date":"2012-04-15T00:30:53","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T04:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=13021"},"modified":"2012-04-15T00:30:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T04:30:53","slug":"sound-and-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/sound-and-vision\/","title":{"rendered":"Sound and Vision"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Black Sun<\/p><\/div>\n

I recently spent on a few days up in Seattle enjoying the uncharacteristic sun, and the characteristic strong coffee, cold beer, and heavily blue and green landscapes that that city offers. And while I strongly associate Seattle with music, during my 5 days there, I noticed other ways that music is closely entwined with the visual art culture.<\/p>\n

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Exhibit 1:<\/em> Theaster Gates, The Listening Room at Seattle Art Museum.<\/strong> Yeah, yeah, your MOMA has dj nights and rooftop parties, but Theaster Gates’ exhibit<\/a> offers (in his words) “critique through collaboration” and an altar to the African-American experience through the soul, jazz, R&B, and hip-hop music from the ’60s to ’80s. Like a church, there are lights highlighting the immense record collection gleaned from the now defunct Dr. Wax record store in Chicago, the pulpit-like dj booth, a case where instead of the topic of today’s sermon, letters spelled out: “SUP BBY GURL,” and gothic arch-backed chairs and benches. One entire wall is lined with albums. And in the center of the floor, gently bathed in a spot light, was an old-school turntable, headphones and several crates of records. I spent quite a bit of time leafing through and listening to the albums, experiencing nostalgia at the $6.99 price tags, the double-leaf album format and the feel of old cardboard. While I was flipping through albums by Rick James, The Three Degrees, Grover Washington, Prince, Willis Jackson, and Jean Luc Ponty, a mother and toddler son came in to the room. He started to dance to the music; she asked him, “Do you know who this is?” She offered him a second clue: “It’s Aunt Sue’s favorite musician,” and the little kid replied, “Stevie Wonder!” That alone was worth the price of museum admission.<\/p>\n

Exhibit 2:<\/em> Soundgarden, the Artists’ Band.<\/strong> Years ago, a friend took me to a sculpture in Magnusun Park, the 1982 work by Doug Hollis entitled, “A Sound Garden.” Parallel to the beach, a series of tall steel pipes are arranged and when the wind blows by (which is about 99% of the time), slots in the pipes allow them to act like a pipe organ and emit all sorts of eerie notes and chords. Here’s a video of the sculpture in action: