Sonic Blossom came into existence while I was caring for my mother as she recuperated from surgery. We found great comfort in listening to Franz Schubert's Lieder. These songs came as an unexpected gift to us, one that soothed us both and clearly helped with her healing. At another level, seeing my own mother weak and ill made her (and my) mortality suddenly very real; aging, disease and death were no longer abstractions to me, but immediate and present. One day she--and I--will be gone. Like Schubert's Lieder, our own lives are brief, but all the more beautiful because of this.
In this new project created for the inaugural exhibition of National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, I would like to use these songs as a transformative gift to the visitors who encounter these moving Lieder. Each singer has to learn three of the five chosen Lieder. During exhibition hours, the singer meanders in the gallery, finding a visitor that s/he thinks might enjoy receiving this sonic gift by approaching them with the question: May I give you a gift of song? This is when the song is sung. This happens sporadically both in time and location--the folding and unfolding of a "Sonic Blossom".
2015 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
2014 Mori Art Museum, Tokyo
2013 National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea