High Line over-understates John Cage commemoration
The composer’s minimalist film and sound work is somewhat
lost in a small passageway on the elevated park
By Helen Stoilas. Web only
Published online: 03 August 2012
A screening of John Cage’s One11 and 103, 1992, opened
without much fanfare on Thursday on the High Line, the elevated park along Manhattan ’s West Side .
Installed to celebrated what would be the composer and artist’s 100th birthday,
the piece itself is a contemplative melding of sound and light, but its
installation in a dim passageway detracts from the experience of viewing the
work.
On the hot, late afternoon of the opening, the High Line was
teeming with visitors, lounging on the wooden benches or strolling down the
former elevated railway, enjoying the riverside views. After tearing ourselves
away from the inviting refuge of wildflowers, it took a few minutes to actually
locate Cage’s work. The piece is installed in the High Line’s 14th Street
Very few passersby seemed to realise they were walking by
an art work (one visitor in fact was found napping on a nearby table) perhaps
because for much of the film, the screen is blank or lit by simple, white
shapes that could look like falling sunlight. Cage decribed One11 as “a film
without subject. There is light but no persons, no things, no ideas about
repetition and variation. It is meaningless activity which is nonetheless
communicative, like light itself, escaping our attention as communication
because it has no content to restrict its transforming and informing power.”
Sometimes you can pick out snatches of notes or tones from the composition, but
it is often difficult to hear the subtle music clearly over the low din of Chelsea
Adding to the distraction, a group of volunteers were
putting up chairs and yoga mats on the other side of the passageway. When asked
what they were setting up for, they said it was a screening of the popular
dance movie “Step Up”, starting at 7pm. The Cage screening had its hours cut
short on its opening day, from 1pm to 6pm, but it is due to be shown until 11pm
most days until 13 September.
We spoke to one visitor, James McLoughlin, who stopped to
admire the work after reading the wall text. He had been walking along the park
and knew there were art works dotted along the paths. “It’s curious,” he said
of Cage’s piece, “initially I thought it was just sound and then I saw the
screen.” Asked what he thought of its installation in the passage, he thought
it would look better after dark, and pointed out the nearby construction
netting and plywood walls. “Maybe it’s not the best time to see it.”
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