New York’s Rubin Museum installing ‘OM Lab’

The Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) in New York is turning its sixth floor on February three into “OM Lab”, “a participatory space where visitors can step into a recording booth and offer their chant of the Sanskrit mantra OM”.

Thus collected recordings will be remixed by acoustic consultants and featured in the RMA’s upcoming exhibition “The World Is Sound,” opening June 16.

“In “OM Lab,” visitors will learn about the lasting importance of this sacred syllable, and then become a part of its history by offering their voices to the collective chant”, a release says. It will include “a state-of-the-art recording booth”.

“After the “OM Lab” closes on May eight, the recorded voices will be joined together to form a single chant and played back to visitors within the upcoming exhibition, “The World Is Sound.” RMA will also host several events and programs in the “OM Lab,” including a two-day “OM-In” on February 24 and 25; with music, performances, art-making, meditation, etc.

Commending RMA for “Om” focused installation, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, said that “Om” was the mystical and powerful Sanskrit seed syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism was used to introduce and conclude religious work.

Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged major art museums of the world; including Musee du Louvre and Musee d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc.; to frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

RMA claims to be “a space to contemplate ideas that extend across history and span human cultures”. Since opening in 2004, RMA has welcomed over 1.4 million visitors. Robert M. Baylis and Patrick Sears are Trustees President and Executive Director respectively.

Source : From Our Correspondent