Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Directions: Jennie C. Jones: Higher Resonance
May 16, 2013 – October 27, 2013
Music, art history, and African American culture intermingle in the art of Jennie C. Jones, who creates audio collages, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper that explore the formal and conceptual junctures between modernist abstraction and black avant-garde music, particularly jazz. Higher Resonance is an immersive installation that takes the form of a listening area shaped by a new offset wall mirroring the curve of the existing gallery space. Along this wall are Jones's Acoustic Paintings constructed from industrial soundproof materials. The sound component explores the myriad cultural connotations through samples of African American avant-garde music from the 1970s to the present, including works by such composers and performers as Olly Wilson, Alvin Singleton, Wendell Logan, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, and Alice Coltrane.
