Dia:Beacon commissions sound installation from Carl Craig

Carl Craig will unveil a new sound installation, Party/Afterparty at Dia:Beacon on March 6th, 2020.

For the piece, which marks Craig’s first commission by an arts institution, the second wave Detroit pioneer has reimagined the massive museum’s lower level. “The work itself is a reflection of my reality—the visual, sonic and emotional connections or disconnections I have experienced over the past 30 years as a DJ on the road,” Craig said. “In contrast to the glamorous perception of the touring musician, I wanted to reflect the isolation of the many hours spent alone in hotel rooms and the tinnitus that I, and many other artists, have to contend with as a result of our work.”

Referring to Dia:Beacon’s repurposing of a former Nabisco factory, Craig said, “The stark parallels between this post-industrial space at Dia and the architecture in my hometown Detroit, a place that has always catalyzed my creativity, are fascinating to me.”

Party/Afterparty will run from March 6th through September 20th, during which the Dia will host techno-related programming. “Since Dia’s founding in the ’70s, we have been dedicated to supporting artists working across performance and sound,” Dia curator Kelly Kivland said. “It is exciting to trace the course of minimal sound from artists like La Monte Young [whose work Dia Art Foundation has long displayed and championed]—often seen as the originator of minimal music—through to the Detroit techno scene.”