Agents of Deterioration (2024)

choral performance

collaboration with Ethan Philbrick

commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden

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Agents of Deterioration is a choral performance that responds to the Museum’s 50th-anniversary permanent collection exhibition Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960. Considering the Museum’s role in preserving artwork for future generations, the performance samples the language of art conservation in a meditation on permanence, loss, and the fragility of the future in times of ecological and political crisis.

 

Art conservators define agents of deterioration as types of forces that cause objects to deteriorate. There are ten primary agents of deterioration: physical forces, thieves and vandals, fire, water, pests, pollutants, light, temperature, humidity, and custodial neglect. For this performance, Chao and Philbrick collaborate with young vocalists from the Children’s Chorus of Washington, DC, to create a sonic guided tour that will lead Museum visitors through the exhibition while performing a series of deteriorating choral pieces.

Curated by: Betsy Johnson 

Concept and Direction: Maia Chao & Ethan Philbrick

Composition: Ethan Philbrick 

Vocalists: Children's Chorus of Washington

Production: Margaret Clark and Sarah Chapin 

Photography: Photo by Rick Coulby. Courtesy of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Cinematography: Ty Burdenski & Catching on Thieves

Sound: Ethan Philbrick

Video editing: Ty Burdenski & Maia Chao

Special thanks: Stephanie Lussier, Amber Kerr, Leah Bright, Antje Neumann, Dorothy Cheng, Jessica Johnson, Erin Birdsall, Anouk Verbeek, Briana Brunet-Feston, Nora Lockshin, Sanchita Balachandran, Katya Zinsli, Catharine Hawks, Malaika Abramsom, Amber Kreiensieck, Scott Nolley, and Malcolm Collum

Funding: Commissioned by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden