Archived Project
Note: this is a modified copy of the official page from Public Art Fund




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Artist Bio
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Janet Cardiff, "Her Long Black Hair"

An audio walk in Central Park

June 16 - September 11, 2005

 

 

Janet Cardiff, "Her Long Black Hair" Photo: Jessica Kuhn


 

Janet Cardiff's Her Long Black Hair is a 35-minute journey that begins at Central Park South and transforms an everyday stroll in the park into an absorbing psychological and physical experience. Cardiff takes each listener on a winding journey through Central Park's 19th-century pathways, retracing the footsteps of an enigmatic dark-haired woman. Relayed in a quasi-narrative style, Her Long Black Hair is a complex investigation of location, time, sound, and physicality, interweaving stream-of-consciousness observations with fact and fiction, local history, opera and gospel music, and other atmospheric and cultural elements. At once cinematic and non-linear, Her Long Black Hair uses binaural technology--a means of recording that achieves incredibly precise three-dimensional sound--to create an experience of physical immediacy and complexity.

The walk echoes the visual world as well, using photographs to reflect upon the relationship between images and notions of possession, loss, history, and beauty. Each person receives an audio kit that contains a CD player with headphones as well as a packet of photographs. As Cardiff's voice on the audio soundtrack guides listeners through the park, they are occasionally prompted to pull out and view one of the photographs. These images link the speaker and the listener within their shared physical surroundings of Central Park.


Artist Bio
Janet Cardiff is perhaps best known for her signature audio walks, which she has made in London, Florence, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Her gallery installations--often made with George Bures Miller, Cardiff's husband and artistic collaborator--use the narrative and technical language of film noir to create lush, suspenseful sound and video works. Janet Cardiff was born in Canada in 1957; she and Miller currently live and work in Berlin. They have recently had exhibitions at Luhring Augustine, New York (2004); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2003); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2002); and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2002). A recent mid-career retrospective, Janet Cardiff: A Survey of Works, Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller, opened at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, Queens, in 2001 and has since traveled to Montreal, Oslo, and Turin.

Sponsorship
Janet Cardiff's Her Long Black Hair is sponsored by Bloomberg LP with additional support from the James Family Foundation.

Location
Subways: N, R, Q, to 57th Street or N, R to Fifth Avenue; A, B, C, D, 1, 9 to Columbus Circle.

Google map: 6th Ave and 59th St
Open in Google Maps

Digital Archive
A digital archive of supporting materials for Her Long Black Hair is available through the links below. After you've downloaded the audio material into your iPod/iPhone/MP3 player, print the image files below or open them on your mobile phone while you're at the Park. Materials provided with the permission of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller.

Please listen to these tracks with headphones to achieve binaural effect.

Explore Janet Cardiff & George Bures Miller's website, which has more information.