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Photo by Mike Venso / Laumeier Sculpture Park
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The appointment of Eric Hall as Composer-in-Residence role at Laumeier Sculpture Park got plenty of buzz in the past week, though Hall had been sharing the news with friends for a short period before then.
“I spilled the beans pretty quickly, because I was so psyched,” he says.
The positio was honed by conversations between Hall and Laumeier’s Dana Turkovic, who’d curated a fall-into-winter sequence of events around the exhibit Electric is the Love. Already signed onto that gig as a performer, Hall continued putting forward notions of what was possible. The ideas grew. Hall found that the Laumeier was not only good for an expansive space—with myriad indoor and outdoor spaces in which to create sound—there was the potential to work with professional exhibiting staff at the Sculpture Park.
Hall’s enjoyed that the move has brought some local attention, not only for himself, but also for the venue of his new gig.
“It’s a unique circumstance,” Hall says. “Plenty of institutions have residential artists, and some museums have even had residential composers. For a sculpture park to do this, it’s going to get some attention. And maybe Laumeier’s frequently been seen as under the radar. So much of the permanent collection is comparatively static, compared to how quickly things move in the art community, generally. There are things on display at Laumeier that have been there for years, even decades. I’m guessing this is something new and exciting to look at there. I’m glad that people are taking notice; it is a pretty cool endeavor.”
To start, Hall is going to start unloading some of the ideas he’s been writing down.
“I’ve always just kept notebooks of ideas for installations projects,” he says. “Of course, I typically work in more of a performance-based aspect of music. But I’ve always been interested in three-dimensional work, like the shows at Dunaway Books, where the performers were scattered throughout the store. I want to make pieces that are a little bit more interactive, but it’d completely depend on the participation level of the audience. As they meander through spaces in the park, they’d get a unique experience.”
While he’s already begun some work with Laumeier through the Electric process (for example, a November 12 show at Beverly Pepper's earthwork, Cromlech Glen), his official appointment won’t begin until the first of the year, running through the remainder of 2012. While some work will take place prior to spring, it’s safe to say that when the weather breaks, things will get more sonically interesting in the spring.
“You’re familiar with the bookstore performances, and that’s one of the things we’re talking about, and looking forward to, but on a bigger scale,” Hall says. “Maybe we’ll limit it to battery-powered or acoustic instruments. We’re pretty confident in getting that off the ground. We’ll be recording an interactive album of the entire park, itself, going through and making an individual composition or sound piece for each sculpture in the park, at each location. I’m also wanting to invite other artists to do the same. We’d love to have music moving ahead of visitors, or allow them to skip through tracks, depending on how they move through the park.
"Ideally, they could have a smartphone, where they could scan a piece and that takes them to a track. Hopefully, that would have people stick around a long while. You could go out in the summer, or fall, and check out how the different elements mix together in the environment, partially on based on the weather, like on a windy or rainy day.
Hall may also be curating one of Laumeier's film nights, perhaps performing with his band N. Nomurai, or bringing in the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra to accompany silent films."Oh! And the summer camp will be working in a few projects," he adds. "I’m really looking forward to what can be done there. It’s a really cool camp, with a lot more bright and savvy work happening than the Elmer’s Glue and Popsicle stick camps I grew up with. Some really incredible stuff will happen...I wish I could borrow a kid, just to send them.”
The timing of this residency also comes at an interesting time for Hall. For one, this noted collector of instruments and gadgets has been on a major tear of reducing his holdings lately, rather than adding to them. He says this trend will continue and, in fact, “I’m still trying to let more go. Part of it’s financial. But I’ve been doing this for so many years that you realize there’s only so much stuff you can use. Sometimes the point is limiting yourself, which makes you do the best that you can, committing to just doing the best with what you have. I’m kind of looking forward to the limitations of it, really.”
And he also figures that his long run behind the bar at several area nightspots is coming to an end. In fact, it may’ve come to an end just last week.
“Aside from an occasional guest bartender type of deal, I’m done,” he says. “I’m no longer going to consider myself a bartender by trade.”
“Composer-in-Residence,” instead, will have to do.
Laumeier Sculpture Park is located at 12580 Rott Road, and the galleries are open Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. For more information, go to www.laumeiersculpturepark.org. For more information on Eric Hall's work at the sculpture park, go to laumeiersculpturepark.org/Hall.
