When Sight Meets Sound - Brief Article - Critical Essay

WHO SAID MUSIC WAS LIMITED TO THE EARS?

At the LP Show (on view at Exit Art through August 17), the curators hold that "it is indeed possible to judge a record by its cover." More than 2500 albums splash across the walls, organized to reflect the thrillingly oddball tastes of the collectors who lent their hoards to the exhibit: groups of ventriloquist records and truck-driving songs; sections devoted to crotch-shots, motorcycles, and celebrities with enormous hair; a wall covered with versions of The Sound of Music; and individual albums by artists as diverse as Danny Bonaduce, the Shaggs, Phyllis Diller and Tiny Tim.

The show is one of three NYC events this summer that creatively combine art and music. At Song Poems (on view at Chelsea's Cohan Leslie and Browne gallery, through August 10), painter Steven Hull ignited a string of collaborations by asking 40 writers for original lyrics--the results were set to music, the songs then became videos, and the videos in turn inspired album covers or posters. Artist Dante Brebner created an elaborate lounge environment for experiencing the results.

And, for the fourth year, P.S.1 in Queens hosts "Warm Up" (through September 1): a music series featuring hip-hop, reggae and Afro-Brazilian house, coupled with a new outdoor installation called subWave by architect Lindy Roy which uses mini swimming pools, misting machines, hammocks and walls of spinning fans to create a tropical idyll. Don't miss it.

Emily Jenkins' most recent book is Five Creatures.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group