Asja Zakhareva first described the idea that was to become Impressions to me in 2020 – writing music for artworks, serving both as an interpretive tool and as a part of an auditory experience for those with visual impairment. We took the idea in 2021 to the Van Abbemuseum, which has been working for years on their multisensory experience and were interested in additions of this nature to their experiences. The resulting commission adds four musical reflections to artworks in their exhibition “Dwarsverbanden”[”Delinking and Relinking”], on display 2021-2025.
The opening of Impressions No 2 was arranged for the Museumkoor at Van Abbe. To provide an impression of the rich harp accompaniment, I decided to ask the members of the choir to use ukuleles. I taught them basic ukulele technique and incorporated their playing in the adaptation. This adaptation is performed at various tours held at the museum for a variety of audiences.
Follow the links in the Connections section for information about the individual works that comprise the Impressions project and the paintings that each one is written for. A digital Multisensory Trail through the Van Abbemuseum can be followed on Smartify here, which includes these works as well as multisensory responses to other works in the 2021-2026 collection of the museum.
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