Hear the Curator (PP643)

Before you even step into the Frick Chemistry Laboratory Building, fragments of Kendall Buster’s installation Resonance are visible through the glass windows. Commissioned specifically for the building, Resonance consists of six clusters of ovoid forms spanning the entire length of the vast atrium, suspended from the top of the building by stainless steel aircraft cables. The orbs are made from semi-transparent outdoor shade cloth—the kind used for carports in South Africa—stretched across powder-coated steel frames. Resonance can be seen from the ground, but it can also be experienced from the building’s many staircases and crosswalks, points of view that dramatically change the appearance of the work. Light affects Resonance as well: when it bounces off the material, the forms appear solid and opaque, but when it penetrates the work they dissolve into a shimmering haze. Upon first glance, Resonance suggests clouds gathering along the horizon, but it also evokes clusters of cells seen under a microscope. Appropriately, Buster studied microbiology before pursuing an education in art.