i only have eyes for you

the hirshorn is (yet another) incredible smithsonian museum on the mall - an art and sculpture garden - with a round, wheel-like smooth concrete exterior. back in, oh march (?), an outdoor exhibit at the hirshorn began. reading about it in the washington post, it caught my eye as something interesting - projections of images on the outside of the building with music playing. from sunset to midnight every night until may. sounds interesting, right? and then months passed and life continued and all of a sudden it was the last night of the exhibit.

so down to the mall we went one saturday evening. and coming out of the l'enfant metro station, we were greeted by the chorus of "i only have eyes for you" and greeted by this sight:





i couldn't tell if the exhibit has a beginning or end, but after about half an hour, we started to notice repeats, although not in a particular order. the exhibit, by doug aitken, is called "song 1" and is a series of images projected during the looping of "i only have eyes for you" (by harry warren and al dubin). different versions of the song, some sung by the people in the video, a sort of elaborate and glorified music video, but so much more than that.









the projections are of various things, people, empty streets, footsteps, a factory, cars driving, the lyrics, records spinning. and as you walk around the building, you see different things and the whole environment contributes - the trees casting shadows on the building and then of course, the fact that you are at the mall, with cars driving by and people. under the wheel part of the building, you can see people illuminated as they walk through the interior, contributing, in a way, to the official art.





what a wonderful city this is. people with blankets and picnics watching the exhibit, others staring in awe, others looking confused as to "what is going on here, exactly?". the exhibit has closed now, but its just an example of all the wonderful and surprising things to do here...