in collaboration with Mark Allen
Live Personal Soundtrack (2010/2017) adds an experiential layer to the act of looking at art in public. A professional guitarist offers to accompany one museum visitor at a time through the galleries while playing live music only that participant can hear. Both individuals listen through headphones connected to the electric guitar during this intimate exchange. Each duo negotiates the gallery space together, encountering different artworks and other viewers regarding this performance with curiosity. The piece playfully upends the role of interpretive mobile tours while facilitating the visitor’s ability to spend time tuning in to the art on display.
For the presentation of this work at SFMOMA, the Los Angeles–based artists Chris Kallmyer and Mark Allen have selected a diverse roster of resident musicians, who will be stationed adjacent to galleries devoted primarily to California art from the museum’s painting and sculpture collection. The concept of this improvised exhibition walkthrough was first staged in 2010 at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as part of a public engagement residency by Machine Project, a collective and nonprofit space founded by Allen.
— Tanya Zimbardo
