Client: Live Oak Grove at Rice University

Overview

Partners: Moody Center for the Arts, Humanities Research Center at Rice University. With support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Created as a site-specific land art piece, the installation defined the movements and listening points for musicians and audience members alike. Centered around a live oak grove on the Rice campus, an “origin point” of a reflective ring with stones created the beginning place for the musicians before they dispersed through the audience.
About the music: Hailed as “…the ultimate environmental piece” by The New York Times, Inuksuit is a concert-length (60-70’) work that brings musicians and community members together with the environment. Scored for between nine and 99 percussionists playing drums, cymbals, gongs, glockenspiels, sirens, and a host of other instruments, the work creates a sonic landscape that surrounds the audience. Performers are widely dispersed and move throughout a large, open area. Audience members are encouraged to move freely around the performance area to discover their own individual listening points.

Goals

The goal for Inuksuit was to create a site specific origin point for the percussionists. This origin point is the beginning and end of the performance movements and acts like a focal point for the work both for the musicians and the audience.

Process

Collaborators: Sydney Boyd, Brandon Bell, Doug Perkins, Kati Gullick, Claire Wagner