CRI听力:Sound Artists Serenade Century-old Artworks

This is "Ultramarine" by DJ Jamie XX, a composition created to present Theo van Rysselberghe's 1892 painting "Coastal Scene."

It is part of the exhibition called "soundscapes", a project where artists compose music clips, pulling inspiration from the paintings they see.

The exhibition features six artworks that are being serenaded by music in soundproof rooms.

Exhibition curator Minna Moore Ede says it's a wonderful way of re-imagining the artworks.

"The idea is that you step into the room and you look at one painting that has been chosen by the artist or musician and you hear their sound response. It's a very dark atmospheric space, these are six brand new sound and music commissions, so this is your only opportunity really to hear new work by these musicians in the context of the painting that they've chosen.

New York based composer Nico Muhly created this piece in response to 'The Wilton Diptych', a 14th century altarpiece which shows the young Richard III in a religious setting.

"I try to respond to it in a way that wasn't cartoonish, it's not a one-to-one correspondence between how it looks and how it sounds. But instead, what I was aiming to do is surround it with material that's always in motion, so I worked with a sound designer called Jethro Cooke to make sure that everything is moving slowly in the way that with art that exists in 360 degrees you'd have to move around it to experience it."

Curator Moore Ede says alternative exhibitions like "the soundscapes" open The National Gallery's vast collections to a new audience and give older artworks a new lease of life.

"We do wonderful monographic exhibitions on Rembrandt, on Goya, but there are many routes to get to a painting and this kind of exhibition will bring in a different public, it opens the paintings up to different types of people. And I think it's great for somewhere like The National Gallery to offer a really varied menu of exhibitions, if you like."

The Soundscapes has opened and runs until early September.

For CRI, this is fu yu.