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You'll want to stop by the Dia in New York City to see LaMonte Young's "truly immersive" Dream House

You'll want to stop by the Dia in New York City to see LaMonte Young's "truly immersive" Dream House

In New York in the 1960s and ’70s, a movement against pictorial, illusionistic, or fictive art began to favor more direct and literal figurations. This movement—now called Minimalism by many—was often spatial in nature as it was drawn on flat surfaces, sculpted, and displayed in white box galleries.

There were, during the period, musicians who either joined the movement who were inspired by the likes of John Cage and others—Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, etc. They had natural affinities to music that was aural or spatial. One of these was LaMonte Young, a major figure in the movement, and now his 1969 piece, Dia 15 VI 13 545 West 22 Street Dream House (circa 1969), has been acquired by the Dia Art Foundation and is on display at their space at 545 West 22nd Street through next October.

Dia describes the installation created by Young and collaborator Marian Zazeela as a “truly immersive experience…in sound and light, in which a work would be played continuously and ultimately exist in time as a living organism with a life and tradition of its own.” Architects open to new—or in this case older—ideas of space and time would do well to visit. Young and Zazeela intend the work to be “durational” and to be experienced several times over a lifetime. Dia will also present various musical performances inside the spatial experience during its installation.


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