Ari Benjamin Meyers Solo for Ayumi (dress), 2017
Handwritten score on paper, dress, plinth
Handschriftliche Partitur auf Papier, Kleid, Sockel
Handschriftliche Partitur auf Papier, Kleid, Sockel
110 x 97 x 70 cm
The work consists of a folded black dress, paired with a typed letter that has been partially covered with a hand-written score. The work belongs to Ari Benjamin Meyers' series of twelve diptychs conceived on the occasion of his 2017 solo exhibition Solo for Ayumi.
Meyers and Berlin-based violinist Ayumi Paul have been friends for more than fifteen years, regularly collaborating on music-based projects. In 2017, the two artists engaged in a correspondence based on Paul’s life, which forms the point of departure of Solo for Ayumi. From the approximately thirty letters that she sent him, Meyers chose twelve to which he responded by inscribing them with a multi-part score composing both a musical portrait and abstraction of the violin player. Each one of Meyers’ score forms a series of individual motifs, part of a bigger composition performed by the violinist during the entire duration of the exhibition.
Alongside this performance, the artist chose to exhibit selected objects and artifacts belonging to Paul as diptychs, paired with the letter-scores: a birth certificate, a key, a diary, a student ID, a golden bracelet, a letter, a calendar, four negatives, baby shoes, a dress, a stone, and a toy-gun. All twelve objects echo the content of Paul’s letters, whether directly or by association. However, this content remains partly protected from the viewer due to Meyers’ hand-written score partially covering Paul’s words, insuring a certain privacy to the deeply charged letters. Ayumi Paul wore this black dress for her debut concert. Recalling the elegant dress code of classical concerts, the piece of clothing embodies the idea of a costume, a metaphorical protection that Paul needs to put on every time she appears on stage.
With Solo for Ayumi, Meyers addresses the complex connection between the artist and his muse, the composer and his interpreter, while playing with the concept of the solo as both a musical and an exhibition form. Solo for Ayumi embodies what it entails to live one’s life through music, when a musical instrument becomes an extension of oneself and literally plays the performer’s life.
Meyers and Berlin-based violinist Ayumi Paul have been friends for more than fifteen years, regularly collaborating on music-based projects. In 2017, the two artists engaged in a correspondence based on Paul’s life, which forms the point of departure of Solo for Ayumi. From the approximately thirty letters that she sent him, Meyers chose twelve to which he responded by inscribing them with a multi-part score composing both a musical portrait and abstraction of the violin player. Each one of Meyers’ score forms a series of individual motifs, part of a bigger composition performed by the violinist during the entire duration of the exhibition.
Alongside this performance, the artist chose to exhibit selected objects and artifacts belonging to Paul as diptychs, paired with the letter-scores: a birth certificate, a key, a diary, a student ID, a golden bracelet, a letter, a calendar, four negatives, baby shoes, a dress, a stone, and a toy-gun. All twelve objects echo the content of Paul’s letters, whether directly or by association. However, this content remains partly protected from the viewer due to Meyers’ hand-written score partially covering Paul’s words, insuring a certain privacy to the deeply charged letters. Ayumi Paul wore this black dress for her debut concert. Recalling the elegant dress code of classical concerts, the piece of clothing embodies the idea of a costume, a metaphorical protection that Paul needs to put on every time she appears on stage.
With Solo for Ayumi, Meyers addresses the complex connection between the artist and his muse, the composer and his interpreter, while playing with the concept of the solo as both a musical and an exhibition form. Solo for Ayumi embodies what it entails to live one’s life through music, when a musical instrument becomes an extension of oneself and literally plays the performer’s life.
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