hidden city was an exhibition that took place in philadelphia in 2009. the exhibition paired each artist with a historical building that was either unrecognized or closed to the public. after doing several site visits, i decided to work with thomas u. walter’s 1837 building for girard college (a school originally for white orphans). i was taken with both the acoustic qualities of the large beaux arts domes and tile floors; as well as the grandness of the scale – which seemed counter-intuitive to the kind of intimate spaces i usually respond to. one of my main interests was in how the intimate nature of my work might challenge the scale of the space; although of course, also how the space might challenge the work.
a year before the installation and exhibition i was invited to create work for the space for a single evening. this event, in 2008, was really a way of setting the table and/or starting to get a sense of how wound and intimate sound in particular would react to the space. thus, i showed a silent film, i did a sound performance, and i created two small sound installations.
in 2009, for the actual exhibition, i created a large scale sound and sculptural installation, an installation of wooden sculpture, watercolor works and sound; and a letterpress book, presented on a victorian work table found in the space.
all of the works were inspired by a number of sources related to the space and its history, including: stephen girard’s stipulations for the architecture, as noted in his will, as well as the names of his entire fleet of merchant ships; benjamin franklin’s letters regarding the glass harmonica; lorenzo langstroff’s beehive experiments; and thomas u. walter’s notes and lectures on architecture.
