Shift Type: Weekly

Occurrence: every week on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday until April 26, 2015

Commitment Time:Sunday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Wednesday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM, Thursday 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM, Friday 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM, Saturday 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM

Volunteers Needed Per Shift: No limit

Skills: Singing

As part of Ann Hamilton: the common S E N S E, we invite University of Washington choir members to sing individually or in small groups to the images and materials of animals displayed in the exhibition.

The project—filled with the skins of animals that once alive touched and were touched by the worlds they inhabited—is based on touch as physical contact, as embodied knowledge, and as a form of intellectual and emotional recognition. Hamilton writes: “Each extension of a hand or paw is toward contact. Contact with the ground, the air, to someone or something outside the self and from this extension one is always touched in return—that is touch’s reciprocal condition. When we touch we go from being observers to being included—things seen become things felt. Hearing is a way to touch at a distance."

Rather than a polished performance, this invitation is for an intimate serenade between singer(s) and animals. Choir members can choose to sing one to two compositions written for the exhibition by University of Washington Associate Professor Giselle Wyers—“An Incantation to Remember,” composed for an individual, and “It Filled My Heart With Love”, written as a round for groups. Or, participants can sing a melody. (Listen to Victoria Solenberger sing "It Filled My Heart with Love.")

Singers can address their song to photographic images of mammal, bird, and amphibian specimens printed on newsprint pads and densely hung to fill four galleries. Or, they can direct their address to garments made from animal parts—Alaskan wolf-fur mittens, or a couture coat with monkey fur trim—laid on movable tables shrouded by curtains that when parted form an intimate surround for singer and garment. Singers can also join the field of twenty-one mechanized bullroarers inspired by ancient instruments used from Australia to the Alaskan Peninsula to call or signal over great distance. A low-frequency vibration sounds across the museum as air passes over spinning cantilevered arms that ascend, descend, and circle vertical poles extending from floor to ceiling.

Individual singers and groups, as part of a class or rehearsal, are welcome in the galleries during Henry open hours:

Wednesday, Saturday, & Sunday: 11 am – 4 pm

Thursday & Friday: 11 am – 9 pm

Please sign up for a date using the VolunteerMark calendar. Henry staff will follow up with you after you select a date to confirm what time you will arrive at the museum.

Questions? Please email Erin Bailey at [email protected]