National Gallery,London
Inviting sound artists to compose a work in response to a portray in the collection is the worst idea the National Gallery has had in yearsLet’s start with a rapid/fast test. Imagine you are standing in front of a pointillist shoreline of clear waters beneath an opalescent sky. Tiny waves stir the surface, which is composed of thousands of colorful dots of sea green, or white and ultramarine. Now imagine the most obvious soundtrack anyone could possibly come up with in response to such a portray. If you guessed a spray of puny digitised plinky-plonk droplets then you win the prize – in this case,the chance to see some other exhibition.
Soundscapes is the worst idea the National Gallery has come up with in nearly 200 years. It is feeble, pusillanimous (cowardly), and apologetic and,even in its resolute wrong-headedness, lacks all ambition. Invite a sound artist to compose a work in response to a masterpiece from the collection and you might expect something original, and given all the precedents in music alone,from Rachmaninov’s Isle of the Dead and Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition to Philip Glass’s piano portrait of Chuck Close. But instead this show feels more like the ambient soundtrack on a pair of National Trust headphones.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com