You Move Me, is the title of an interactive site-specific art installation comprised of 1000 hand-cut chimes activated by street traffic. It was part of the display last month at the Chashama Donnell Library Window Space located at 20 West 53rd Street, across from the Museum of Modern Art in midtwon Manhattan. Created by artists Kathleen Marie McDermott and Edward Kim-Yujoong, the installation is a study in transcendence. One thousand pieces of electrical conduit, hand cut and filed into individual chimes, come together to create a surreal terrain suspended in space. When still, the chimes project an austere landscape, rising and falling with the reverence of a cathedral. When approached by a viewer, the piece comes alive. Street traffic activates the chimes, causing them to move and dance. As they collide, each impact multiplies, the sound building to a glorious and completely random symphony. Curious observers are rewarded for their closer examination with this private, unique performance.
You Move Me is a hymn for New York City. It relies on the inherent optimism of simple, common elements coming together to create something transformative. A massive amount of metal, when delicately suspended, becomes as light and ephemeral as any passing New York moment.
The artists, Kathleen Marie McDermott and Edward Kim-Yujoong, have been afforded this opportunity thanks to Chashama (www.chashama.org), a non-profit dedicated to the beautification of public spaces while fostering local talent in New York City. (information from the exhibit caption).
