Encapsulating the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s ambitious summer exhibition in uptown is nearly impossible. It’s about so many things: ability and disability, sight and sound, math and science and a host of other themes. But at its core, it’s about opening visitors’ eyes—and ears—to the different ways art can be experienced.
Collection, Reframed: We Are Here, Beyond Vision, which runs July 2 through Sept. 22, was originally conceived as a selection of pieces from the Bechtler’s 2,000-piece permanent collection, all related to the human form.
New York-based artist Janet Biggs was tapped as guest curator, but the surprising co-curator she brought on inspired Bechtler Executive Director Todd Smith to take the exhibition further.
Her co-curator, Charlotte-based dancer and choreographer Davian Robinson, is nearly blind; he can detect only light and shadows. He relies on his “very developed sense of hearing,” Biggs said, which led Biggs and Smith to ponder: Could they sonify—meaning, add sound to—some of the works?
