Janet Cardiff

The Forty Part Motet

June 8–September 15, 2019

Canadian artist Janet Cardiff’s acclaimed 2001 sound installation, The Forty Part Motet, deconstructs Thomas Tallis’s sixteenth-century choral work Spem in alium (Hope in any other) by assigning each of the voices to individual freestanding speakers in the gallery. Visitors can weave their way through this ring of speakers, coming in close to hear an individual singer’s voice—and even breath—or standing in the center to be struck by the polyphonic force of the whole.

Read the full press release here.

Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet features the voices of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir. It was recorded and post-produced by SoundMoves, edited by George Bures Miller, and produced by Field Art Projects. The Forty Part Motet is lent generously by the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. The Clark’s summer 2019 exhibitions and programs are made possible in part by generous support from Denise Littlefield Sobel. Significant support for this exhibition is provided by Sylvia and Leonard Marx, with additional support from the Sheehan Family.