Gradually / We Became Aware / Of a Hum in the Room

Gradually/We Became Aware/Of a Hum in the Room is a new project by Halsey Rodman that presents a temporally distributed architectural structure conceived for two locations: the desert of High Desert Test Sites, Joshua Tree, CA and Art in General’s sixth floor gallery in the heart of downtown New York City.

The work begins in the desert as a triangular building divided into three identical rooms. Each room has a circular window looking out upon the landscape and contains a series of near-identical “fixtures”: a desk, a chair, and a shelf. The interior and fixtures are painted distinct colors according to the single descriptive text below:

I AM THINKING OF A REVERSE SUNSET THAT NEITHER OF US HAS EVER SEEN: WHAT YOU SEE IN THE SKY OPPOSITE THE SUNSET.

WHAT SURROUNDS THE PRISM IN THE DESERT IN THE FUTURE IS OUT OF REACH SO

I WILL PULL THESE COLORS FROM THE AIR.

FOUR COLORS ABOVE THE TAN DESERT SCRUB IN THE GRAYING SKY FADE TOWARDS THE LIGHT BLUE DUSK: DUSTY PURPLE, MAGENTA, FADING RED, PEACH AND ON INTO THAT AIRLESS BLUE.

THE FIFTH COLOR IS YELLOW: THE CONE OF A FLASHLIGHT IN A PITCH BLACK ROOM.

One year later the work will be dismantled, transported, and reassembled inside Art in General’s gallery, the previous exterior walls unfolded to become the interior. The three (formerly) exterior walls create a central, open triangular area and the interiors and walls of the rooms will be splayed-out around the perimeter. All windows in the gallery are open, allowing the shifting light to filter in, clock-like, from the outside. The presence of the desert landscape is collapsed into the center of the inside-out structure, an exterior folded in upon itself. This inverted structure, now established as a zone of exchange, interpenetration, and blurring between interior and exterior, suggests a consensual, productive encounter of time and architecture.

Gradually/We Became Aware/Of a Hum in the Room will be on view at High Desert Test Sites’ Andy’s Gamma Gulch parcel near Joshua Tree, CA beginning May 31, 2014.