Oscar winner brings atmosphere to Dia
Dia Beacon is akin to the Statue of Liberty: a tourist magnet that some locals seem to shun. Unlike the lady in New York’s harbor, the local institution is tough to spot from the street, so it’s pretty much out of sight.
Putting it out of mind is a big mistake, especially as the parent Dia Art Foundation celebrates its 50th anniversary with Bass, an installation by Academy Award-winner Steve McQueen, a visual artist long before he began making films.
The Laurenz Foundation and Schaulager Basel co-commissioned the exhibition with Dia, whose 30,000-square-foot basement McQueen has filled with mood lighting and ambient audio accompaniment. (The exhibit will move to Switzerland next year.)
The premise evokes McQueen’s 2013 Oscar winner for Best Picture, 12 Years a Slave. Entering the space evokes descending into the hull of a ship on the Middle Passage, says Emily Markert, a curator.
Despite the heavy concept, the installation is easy to appreciate. It builds on a project the artist created in Amsterdam, Blues Before Sunrise (2012), which established an atmosphere by fitting 275 street lamps with blue filters.
People enjoying the city’s Vondelpark became “the cast of the work,” according to the program brochure, co-written by Markert.
McQueen turns Dia’s cavernous space into a cathedral of contemplation with 60 square LED lightboxes arrayed overhead that shift colors across the spectrum every 28 minutes.
No shadows are cast and the eerie, ethereal effect replicates dusk as the shiny floor reflects the light.
Three sets of speakers on the ceiling, coupled with refrigerator-sized subwoofers on the floor, convey the improvised, understated soundtrack that loops for a little more than three hours.
Directed by McQueen and Marcus Miller, a handful of bassists representing the African diaspora (Miller, Meshell Ndegeocello, Aston Barrett Jr., Mamadou Kouyate and Laura-Simone Martin) assembled in the space over several days in January to improvise the rumbling thrum. Jonny Taylor at Beacon AV Lab receives a recording assistant credit.
McQueen presided over the final mix at Abbey Road Studio in London. At times, the results sound like whales singing. Resolutions are few. Patterns sometimes emerge, only to dissolve. Occasionally a more aggressive note, riff or string bend chimes through.
The effect takes advantage of the natural reverb created by the concrete confines, turning the exhibit into a sound bath, a generic term denoting the use of vibrations from musical instruments (like Tibetan singing bowls) to help people feel better.
A few days after the Dia exhibit’s opening in May, a woman placed her bag on the concrete floor and used it as a pillow. Another visitor lay flat on his back without any padding.
There is no seating in the center of the room, so most visitors trundle through the darkish space or stand around for a while. Others sit with their backs against one of the columns, find the benches that line the walls or use one of the four short stairways that lead to the emergency exits.
One couple pressed their bodies against a subwoofer stack, then retreated to a corner and made out for a while. When the rhythm congealed for several seconds, another visitor broke into a dance.
“This experience boils down to the fundamental elements of film: light and sound,” said Markert. “It creates an environment and lets people do their thing.”
Dia Beacon, at 3 Beekman St., is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday to Monday. Bass runs through April 14. Timed admission is $20 ($18 seniors, $12 students, visitors with disabilities, $5 children ages 5-11, free to members, Beacon and Newburgh residents and children younger than 5). See diaart.org.
