Studio Museum in Harlem
A neon poem watches over the lobby, a Pan-African flag flutters on 125th Street, and formerly buried bronze time capsules sit ready for their 2034 opening.
Walking down 125th St, the Pan-African colored stars and stripes flag by David Hammons flutters ahead, the candor of its existence as artwork, political action, and street marker announces the Studio Museum in Harlem, one block down from the Apollo Theater
Each of the three permanently installed artworks at the newly opened home of the Studio Museum in Harlem gets its own audio reflections by three museum educators. Each recorded in front of the specific artwork.
The Conwill is the strangest to describe. The capsules were buried in the old sculpture garden, holding private testaments from seven Black Americans, among them Romare Bearden, Toni Morrison and Leontyne Price, to be opened half a century later. The garden is gone, the capsules have been dug up and put on display, and they are still sealed. The label won't tell you what is inside. The educator's advice is to wait, and to find some joy in not knowing. Ligon's lights, she says, are a breath: in on me, out on we. And Hammons's flag is a symbol of Black pride and a conversation about being Black and American.
Client
Studio Museum in Harlem
Project
Artists' Installations
Services
Production - Interviews - Post Production
Voices
Josie Rivera, Maya Shae, Cathleen Luo
Share:
Our Process
Listening in situ.
Opportunity
The Studio Museum's new home opened with three permanent installations that visitors meet before any gallery: on the street, in the lobby, and behind glass. The opportunity was to give each one a voice, and to let the museum's own educators, who talk about these works with visitors every day, do the talking.
Insight
Educators rarely explain a work. They describe what is in front of them and then ask a question. Recorded in front of each artwork, the audio lets a listener do the same: look first, then listen, and leave with something to think about rather than something to remember.
Outcome
Three short audio reflections, each three or four minutes long, one for every work, recorded in front of the artwork and shared through the museum's audio guide.
