Ragnar Kjartansson: The Visitors special preview during High Frequency Friday

From the venue:

The High presents this acclaimed video installation by Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, who is celebrated internationally for his work combining musical, theatrical, and cinematic elements.

The Visitors is a mesmerizing nine-channel sound and video recording featuring performers and musicians playing a composition by Kjartansson and Davíð Þór Jónsson with lyrics from artist Ásdís Sif Gunnarsdóttir.

Although playing together in unison, the performers each occupy separate rooms within a historic forty-three-room mansion on Rokeby Farm, an estate located in upstate New York. The unique visual and audio arrangement creates a layered portrait of the two hundred-year-old home and its inhabitants and poignantly expresses the experiences of love, loss, separation, and reunion.

The installation is accompanied by Postcards to Marguerite, a multipart work that draws a literary parallel to the musical exchange between friends in The Visitors. Featuring 415 postcards the artist sent to Marguerite Steed Hoffman over a period of fourteen months, the work marks a series of prosaic moments alongside significant events of Kjartansson’s life.