Jackson Pollock said about his large paintings that he wanted to be in them. Of Mural, Pollock wanted to insert more than himself. He said, it contained all the animals of the American West: cows and horses and antelopes and buffaloes. It is a a place where he had a “General notion of what [he was] about.” Standing before Mural, one questions what they are about, what the painting is about, what art is about.
As a way into Mural, FM90 contacted a few musicians and bands working and composing in Siouxland, asking them to create music inspired by or in reaction to this painting. Each edition of this series is broken into three parts: the viewing, the composition, and the summation. For this, the final installation, we met with Dr. Debra Check Reeves, a clarinetist and Curator of Education and Woodwind Instruments at the University of South Dakota’s National Music Museum, and her brother, Dr. John Check, pianist and Professor of Music at University of Central Missouri.
We thank the Sioux City Art Center for their help and inspiration, and The Gilchrist Foundation for providing us with the equipment that captured so beautifully the sounds and images for this series. And also, thanks to all the musicians, Sioux City Drum Fest, the Titans of Industry, Elsa Va, GhostCat, and Deborah Check Reeves and John Check for their generous and brilliant contributions.