Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies

Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_2 - 139600

Cauleen Smith, Sojourner, 2018, digital video, color, sound, 22:41 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the SJ Weiler Fund, 2020.54.1, © 2020, Cauleen Smith

Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music. The exhibition focuses on video art that employs the strategies of musical creation — scores, improvisation, and interpretation — as well as its styles, structures, and lyrics to speak to personal as well as shared aspects of American life. Rich with cultural references and emotionally evocative, the works in the exhibition use music to call up memories, capture attention, provoke insight, and invite visceral engagement. Rather than treating soundtracks as secondary, the musical choices in the featured videos are key to their meaning and impact.

Description

The presentation celebrates major new acquisitions to SAAM’s media art collection. It pairs recently added video works by ADÁL, Raven Chacon, Mariam Ghani, Martine Gutierrez, Arthur Jafa, Erin Ellen Kelly, Christine Sun Kim, Liz Magic Laser, Simone Leigh, and Cauleen Smith with related photographs, sculptures, prints and immersive installations by the same creators. The featured artists draw on the vast cultural influence of American music. Whether turning to early spirituals, jazz and mid-century musicals, or movie soundtracks and hip-hop, each artist deeply considers the traditions, methods, and purpose of music in daily life. Connecting innovative forms, past and present, to the American experience, they emphasize that our national story has always been complex, multivocal, and set to music.

The exhibition is organized by Saisha Grayson, curator of time-based media at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, with support from Anne Hyland, curatorial assistant.

Visiting Information

June 23, 2023 January 29, 2024
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m
Free Admission

Events

14
Thursday
Dec
Musical Thinking Gallery Talk
Thursday, December 14, 2023, 5:30pm EST
Free | Registration encouraged
Featured Event
11
Thursday
Jan
Free | Registration encouraged
Please note that the performances move throughout the building. Space for each session is limited.
Featured Event
11
Thursday
Jan
Free | Registration encouraged
Please note that the performances move throughout the building. Space for each session is limited.

Publications

The cover of the publication Musical Thinking New Video Art & Sonic Strategies
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies 
Exploring the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music, the exhibition Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies features ten leading contemporary artists and the work.

Installation Images

Videos

Credit

Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by Michael Abrams and Sandra Stewart, Aida Alvarez, Candy and Michael Barasch, Carolyn and Mo Cunniffe, Roger S. Firestone Foundation, Ed and Kathy Fries, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Pamela and David Hornik, Maureen and Gene Kim, Nion McEvoy Publications Endowment, Victoria McManus, V. Joy Simmons, MD, Smithsonian Accessibility Innovation Fund, Lucille and Richard Spagnuolo, Helen and Peter Warwick,and the SJ Weiler Fund.

This exhibition received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, and the Asian Pacific American Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Smithsonian American Women's History Museum logo in color.

SAAM Stories

A procession of women walking through the desert. The woman in front holds a radio on her shoulder.
05/19/2023
Exhibition invites viewers to discover the intersections and influences of video and sound, through works by some of today’s leading contemporary artists
A group of women standing outside under a slatted-canopy. The shadows of the slats cross the image.
Curator Saisha Grayson examines the utopian realities presented in Smith's video artwork, Sojourner
SAAM
Side by side artworks displaying symbols in a musical arrangement.
11/03/2023
Award winning composer Raven Chacon combines Diné (Navajo) worldviews with Western classical and avant-garde music traditions
SAAM

Online Gallery

Media - 2013.20A-B - SAAM-2013.20_1 - 87448
West Side Story Upside Down, Backwards, Sideways and Out of…
Artist
Date2002
suitcase, flat-screen LCD monitor, single-channel digital video, color, sound; 12:51 minutes
On view
Media - 2013.19.2 - SAAM-2013.19.2_1 - 86730
El Puerto Rican Passport, El Spirit Republic de Puerto Rico…
Artist
Date1994, issued 2012
lithography with photograph in staple-bound booklet
On view
Media - 2020.61A-C - SAAM-2020.61A-C_1 - 140060
Report
Date2001/2015
single-channel video, color, sound, and printed score shown on music stand; Component A: 03:48 minutes
On view
Media - 2022.7.1.1 - SAAM-2022.7.1.1_1 - 146348
For Ange Loft, from the series For Zitkála-Šá
Date2020
lithograph on paper
On view
Media - 2021.23.1 - SAAM-2021.23.1_1 - 140993
When the Spirits Moved Them, They Moved
Date2019
three-channel video, color, sound; 23:36 minutes
On view
Media - 2021.23.2 - SAAM-2021.23.2_1 - 142483
Clubbing
Date2012
HD video, color, sound; 03:06 minutes
On view
Media - 2020.79.1 - SAAM-2020.79.1_1 - 140662
One Week of Lullabies for Roux
Date2018
seven tracks, sound
On view
Media - 2021.31.1 - SAAM-2021.31.1_1 - 142602
The Star-Spangled Banner (Third Verse)
Date2020
charcoal on paper
On view
Media - 2019.33.2 - SAAM-2019.33.2_1 - 138073
Breakdown
Date2011
single-channel digital video, color, sound; 09:00 minutes
On view
Media - 2020.54.1 - SAAM-2020.54.1_1 - 139599
Sojourner
Date2018
digital video, color, sound; 22:41 minutes
On view
Media - 2020.3 - SAAM-2020.3_1 - 138426
Love is the Message, The Message is Death
Date2016
single-channel high-definition digital video, color, sound; 07:25 minutes
On view
Media - 2020.54.2 - SAAM-2020.54.2_1 - 142470
Pilgrim
Date2017
digital video, color, sound; 07:41 minutes
On view
Media - 2020.79.2 - SAAM-2020.79.2_1 - 140666
Close Readings
Date2015
four-channel video; 25:53 minutes
On view

Accessibility Resources

A person walks holding a radio near her face. A group of people follow.
Accessibility: Exhibition Entrance and Cauleen Smith
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's opening section
Media - 2021.23.1 - SAAM-2021.23.1_1 - 140993
Accessibility: Mariam Ghani and Erin Ellen Kelly
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's second section
Media - 2013.20A-B - SAAM-2013.20_1 - 87448
Accessibility: ADÁL
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's third section
Media - 2020.61A-C - SAAM-2020.61A-C_1 - 140060
Accessibility: Ravon Chacon
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's fourth section
Media - 2019.33.2 - SAAM-2019.33.2_1 - 138073
Accessibility: Simone Leigh and Liz Magic Laser
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's fifth section
Media - 2021.23.2 - SAAM-2021.23.2_1 - 142483
Accessibility: Martine Gutierrez 
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's sixth section
Media - 2020.3 - SAAM-2020.3_1 - 138426
Accessibility: Arthur Jafa
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's seventh section
Media - 2020.79.1 - SAAM-2020.79.1_1 - 140662
Accessibility: Christine Sun Kim
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's eighth section
Media - 2020.54.2 - SAAM-2020.54.2_1 - 142470
Accessibility: Cauleen Smith and Exhibition Exit
Resource for wall text, ASL translations, verbal descriptions, and wayfinding for exhibition's final section

Artists

ADAL wears a tuxedo and fedora in front of windows. Text below him reads "Auto-Portrait: As I began to disappear I realized someone was beginning to forget me"
ADÁL
born Utuado, Puerto Rico 1948-died San Juan, Puerto Rico 2020
The artist Ravon Chacon stares directly into the camera in a black shirt
Raven Chacon
born Fort Defiance, AZ 1977
Mariam Ghani
born New York City 1978
Martine Guitierrez stares directly at the camera with her hand covering her mouth
Martine Gutierrez
born Berkeley, CA 1989
Arthur Jafa- portrait
Arthur Jafa
born Tupelo, MS 1960

Arthur Jafa (b. 1960, Tupelo, Mississippi) is an artist, filmmaker and cinematographer.

Simone Leigh
born Chicago, IL 1968
Liz Magic Laser
born New York City 1981
The artist Cauleen Smith sits in a chair in a pink top and green pants
Cauleen Smith
born Riverside, CA 1967
Christine Sun Kim stands in front of a tree and dark background in a pink dress
Christine Sun Kim
born Orange County, CA 1980