Front & Center: Bard exhibit could leave you tapping your feet

By Nicole Edwards
Poughkeepsie Journal

When I hear music, dancing is one of the first things that usually comes to mind.

I learned how to listen to melodies along with every bell chime, horn or downbeat from one of my tap instructors.

As I got older, friends would point out how I paid closer attention to the base in songs and sang along with the rhythm instead of the words.

I really didn't realize how much I had been doing it until I saw ''Christian Marclay,'' an exhibit by the Swiss-American experimental music performer, who combines art and music and mixes sound with images.

More than 80 works of art he created, including color photographs, sculpture, posters and video works from the past 20 years, are on display at the Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in Annandale through Dec. 19.

''When you hear a sound, an image comes to your mind and you're trying to figure out what it is,'' said Marcia Acita, assistant director of the museum. ''Paying attention to sound is what I think Christian Marclay was trying to say more than anything.''

Music comes to mind

Sounds such as dripping water tapping out of speakers in the museum walls wasn't the only reverberation I noticed in the exhibit.

I subconsciously began to cue music in my head as I continued through the gallery. Songs associated with the album covers by artists I was familiar with, such as Michael Jackson and The Doors, were incorporated into the show.

Recycled covers from various artists were bound together with thread to make collages.

Jim Morrison of The Doors was shown with no arms, but obtained limbs when Marclay attached other covers with arms to him. Marclay even calculated his weight in records to equal records filled in four cardboard boxes.

One collage of recycled album covers was used to create an extended guitar neck.

Another piece, ''Chorus II,'' immediately made me grin.

As I looked at the black-and-white photos of gaping mouths that appeared to be singing ballads or rock, I imagined how I must have mirrored the same visage on my way to Bard as I sang and bobbed my head to my new Outkast CD.

My favorite piece, however, had to have been the 14-minute ''Video Quartet.''

A large movie screen was sectioned into quarters, showing simultaneously just a few seconds of movie clips from ''Mo' Better Blues'' and ''Mary Poppins,'' musical performances by Jimi Hendrix and Liberace and dance scenes from ''West Side Story.''

The museum is open Wednesdays through Sundays from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information about the exhibit, visit www.bard.edu/ccs or call 845-758-7598.

Nicole Edwards is the arts writer for the Poughkeepsie Journal. Write her c/o Poughkeepsie Journal, P.O. Box 1231, Poughkeepsie, NY 12602, call (845) 437-4881, or e-mail nedwards@poughkee.gannett.com