Name/Title
Holi (Forgive and Forget)Entry/Object ID
2019.40Description
Long black rectangular paper with long strip of multicolored lines of pastel. Annotations above and below strip of colors.Artwork Details
Medium
Pastel pencil on black paperContext
Kerry Mulvania Hirth was born with synesthesia, a kind of cross-wiring of the senses. For Hirth, she experiences sound as color. She can, quite literally, “see the music”. Her bands of delicately blended color are aesthetically pleasing, but firmly rooted in a well defined methodology. On her website she writes, “I have color associations with specific musical harmonies. They are consistent and arise from musical notation. I cannot change them, they are only related to harmony and have nothing to do with how I feel about the music or other elements of music such as texture, instrumentation, timbre, dynamics, or articulation. I make sketches tracking the harmonic changes on a grid, measure by measure, from left to right, as the composition would be performed over time.” Synesthesia is a condition Hirth has known since childhood, but as an adult she has augmented her intuitive abilities with formal training in music theory and performance. Hirth has collaborated with improvisational jazz musicians at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago and with the Missouri Symphony Society.Acquisition
Accession
2019.26-64, 72-78Source or Donor
Browne GoodwinAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
Gift of Browne and Diane GoodwinMade/Created
Artist
Kerry Mulvania HirthDate made
2015Inscription/Signature/Marks
Type
InscriptionLocation
versoTranscription
12x413/4Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Class
ArtNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Music, Sound wavesDimensions
Height
12-1/4 inWidth
42 inDimension Notes
30.48 cm. x 105.72 cm.