Access a slow-looking exercise of this work.

Transcript
Narrator: "Strange Fruit (Pair 1)" is a site-specific installation created in 2015 by Kevin Beasley. A variety of everyday objects are bound together, hanging vertically from the ceiling. The main body of the sculpture is about 6 feet long, elevated about 3 feet off the floor. It hangs about 12 feet below the ceiling, with a diameter up to 2 feet wide.

At first glance it could remind us of low-hanging fruit from a tree, like a tangle of bananas bunched together. However, the artwork title, materials, and construction allude to a deeper meaning. At the heart of "Strange Fruit (Pair 1)" is a pair of Nike Air Jordan sneakers, barely identifiable as they are covered in dark resin and wrapped among parts of speakers and amplifiers. These elements are bound together with rope, power cables, and audio jack cords. Beasley uses this highly commercialized shoe brand in a manner reminiscent of shoes flung over power lines in urban settings, tied together with and hanging by their laces.

The installation is constructed using several feet of climbing rope and thick electrical cords hanging from the ceiling. The rope and cords lead down to a knotted jumble of materials gathered towards the center, with a single shoe hanging down at the bottom. In this precarious arrangement, the sneakers and amplifiers look like they are barely supported within the tangle of cords and could fall off at any time. Beasley expresses underlying tension and violence in the way these objects dangle limply and broken like a body. The speakers are pulled apart, with just the front cone remaining. Electrical equipment is tucked into tube socks, and resin-covered socks and shoes appear partially burned and dirty, as if a soiled plastic bag was melted on top. Referencing Abel Meeropol’s 1937 song of the same title which protests the lynching of Black Americans, Beasley’s installation acknowledges a legacy of racism and classism still affecting Black Americans.

Beasley’s creation is specifically reflective of the Guggenheim’s unique architecture and sonic experience within the museum space. A microphone and speaker are connected to each shoe. Small blue and green lights on the electronic equipment signal they are receiving power, giving this work a sense that it is “alive” as it captures and projects the ambient sound of the gallery space. If we listen closely at certain angles, we detect a faint hum or hiss like the sound of electromagnetic interference. The intake and outtake, reflection and absorption of sound is both expansive and intimate at the same time, similar to how sound varies depending on your location along the ramps or galleries, and distance from the artwork or each other.

How does the incorporation of sound into this installation affect our perspective of the artwork?

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