The Forty-Part Motet, Janet Cardiff (2001)

Janet Cardiff is a Canadian artist who often works with her husband George Bures Miller. One of her most most recognized works is The Forty-Part Motet, whom she invented on her own. The piece consist of 40 speakers, each playing a different voice part (tone). The tones alter from baritones, tenors, altos, and sopranos from eight different choirs. Even though each tone is different they are all singing to a part of Spem in Alium, a song sang in latin that was composed by Thomas Tallis. I found Cardiff’s work to be wonderful and pleasant because she utilized 40 speakers, each sounding off different voice parts to the same song that reflected a harmonious, angelic product. The Forty-Part Motet is impressive because not many people are familiar with the different tones in music, and Cardiff demonstrates the individuality of each tone by assigning the baritones, tenors, altos and sopranos audios to their own speaker. 

Rara Avis, Ralph Helmich and Stuart Schecter (2001)

Rara Avis, located in the Chicago Midway International Airport, was created by Ralph Helmich and Stuart Schecter. Rara avis is latin for “rare bird.” The sculpture is composed of 2,500 small aircrafts. In this piece there are over 50 different kinds of aircrafts being displayed. Every element that was used creates a three-dimensional representation of a cardinal which renders the figure of the Illinois state bird. Ralph Helmich and Stuart Schecter’s work fascinates me because it shows they devoted their time into making the representational figure. They gave a meaning to a sculpture that would have a great significance to the people of the Chicago-land area. Additionally, it’s interesting that there are small elements of aircrafts being used to create the cardinal to then be publicized in Chicago’s Midway International Airport.