The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum is pleased to present Scores for the Stars, Part II (2020-21), the second half of a two-part series by artist Ander Mikalson commissioned by The Aldrich and dedicated to Frank Stella’s Stars. The performance of Part II will take place in the Museum’s Sculpture Garden on Sunday, June 20 between 3 to 5 pm – on the summer solstice, when the sun is highest in the sky.
Musicians Chié Yoshinaka (violin) and Amy Selig (cello) will be performing selected phrases of music about winter, including songs by Simon & Garfunkel, The Mamas & The Papas, Fleet Foxes, Fleetwood Mac, Bob Dylan, and Vivaldi, among others, in the Museum’s Sculpture Garden as a call-and-response between each other and between Frank Stella’s Stars.
Mikalson said, “On the winter solstice we serenade the Stars with songs about summer. On the summer solstice we serenade the Stars with songs about winter. We play songs of the opposite season in a gesture of longing, of collapsing and layering time, of acknowledging cycles, of grappling with the impossibility of time across distance.”
Part I was a two-channel sound installation presented in the Museum’s Sculpture Garden from December 21, 2020 to January 3, 2021, celebrating the winter solstice (December 21, 2020). The winter solstice score was performed by Karina Garrett, playing violin and viola parts.
Mikalson’s Scores for the Stars was created in response to the exhibition Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey. It was organized by Director of Education Namulen Bayarsaihan and Senior Curator Amy Smith-Stewart. Frank Stella’s Stars, A Survey was on view inside the Museum September 20, 2020 to May 9, 2021; the outdoor work installed throughout the Museum’s grounds is on view through September 6, 2021.
Ander Mikalson (b. 1983) is a New York-based artist working in performance, sound, sculpture, and drawing.
Co-sponsored by Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra.