Artist: Ann Cummings
Composers: Tom
Baker, Chris
DeLaurenti
Dimensions: 8' X 8' X 8'
Exhibitions 2006, 2007, 2009, continuing...
Magnusen Park
Seattle, 2006
Inside the Music in a Box
Viewers participate with Flashlights
Magnusen Park
Seattle, 2007
First Thursday Art in the Park
Pioneer Square
Seattle, 2009
Origin of this Artwork: Inside the Music, in a box is an interactive installation that originated from my studies of classical music. The piece is conceived from the experience of vibration, pulse, and change that is inherent in music and how such phenomenon can simultaneously cause us pleasure and doubt, just like the tensions and resolutions of music. The physical properties of this project were created around the psychological experiences of doubt and forgiveness with doubt representing tension, and forgiveness representing resolution. The coarse, unfinished presentation of the room, the music played through a boom-box within the room, and the images depicting reflective, unanswered phenomenon all represent the tension of uncertainty because they offer ambiguity, incompleteness, and confusion. However, this same presentation, coupled with the content of the music, and the balance or dichotomy of the images simultaneously presents hope precisely because it offers the opportunity of potential and the variety of contrast.
Additionally, viewers get to add their own influence to the tension(s) and resolution(s) of this artpiece by dismantling the arrangements of images. Viewers can select one image to take with them (fee $5.00-$100.00) As the images are taken away, new images will be created for future performances.
Music Samples
Image Samples
Future of this project The future of this art piece is that it is designed to endure over time and evolve. As viewers participate by purchasing images and taking them away, new pieces will be hung in their place. Every subsequent exhibition, thus, will be different than previous exhibitions.
After ten years of exhibitions, there will be a special exhibition where everyone who has purchased a piece of this work will be invited to return with their piece (NO obligation) for a special viewing. At that time we can then witness how many pieces have been framed, preserved, or damaged or lost, and whether I have succeeded in creating more original images that relate to the theme of doubt and forgiveness.
