By Kristin Korolwicz, Bass Museum

The next phase of the Bass Museum’s TC: Temporary Contemporary will begin this month and will feature a group of works that explore interactions and relationships among various sites in Miami Beach. This general theme includes projects that investigate the nuances of communication and interactivity in the public sphere, as well as our physical relationship to architecture. The topography of the city will be pointed to, redrawn and redefined by some projects. Others will convey a sense of surprise via displacement, where seemingly common objects in public space are not what they appear. A number of projects are designed to promote new, vibrant meeting places for social interactions in the community.

Recently installed project: Susan Philipsz “By My Side,” 2009 Two-channel sound installation 3 min, 5 sec, played every 5 minutes Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York Location: Collins Park

“By My Side” is a sound installation featuring the artist singing a devotional song from the popular 1973 musical “Godspell.” The lyrics describe the leap of faith necessary when a person follows someone they love to a new country. It explores ideas of travel, displacement, longing and loss through a duet between a lover and a loved one. The song begins as a single voice and then takes the form of a two-part harmony with one voice following the other. The artist recorded her own voice singing in harmony, with the two parts separated onto different channels that play from different speakers in Collins Park. The closing refrain builds up to a polyphony of voices that suggests unity and togetherness.

About the artist: Susan Philipsz was born in Glasgow in 1965. She trained as a sculptor, having received her BFA in sculpture from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in 1993, and her MFA from the University of Ulster, Belfast, in 1994. Philipsz still considers herself a sculptor today, though she is best known for her sound installations.

Philipsz won the Turner Prize in 2010. Her work has been installed in solo exhibitions at the following institutions: ICA, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2008); Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, Columbus (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (2010); and IHME Project 2010, for the Pro Arte Foundation, Helsinki (2010). She has also created the following commissions: Carried by Winds for the Radcliffe Observatory, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom (2008–09); Appear to Me (Hazte ver) at the Silo Monastery, Burgos, Spain (curated by Lynne Cooke and commissioned by Museo nacional centro de arte Reina Sofía) (2009); and Lowlands for the Glasgow International (2010). Her work has been featured in the multiple group exhibitions, including Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010), to which Philipsz contributed a piece commissioned especially for the exhibition, as well as those at Tate Britain, London (2010); Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis (2009); and the Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2008).