Trio in red yellow blue, with variations for fifty-nine steps /
seven flights / three stairways at 5020 South Cornell Avenue

Hyde Park Art Center
Chicago
TakeOver, April 24 – July 9, 2006

Inspired by the musical form itself, Trio in red yellow blue, with variations for fifty-nine steps / seven flights / three stairways at 5020 South Cornell Avenue offered a set of color notations as a score. Each step structured time, while the attached linear markings proposed directional movement within the three stairways. Two enclosed stair-wells at the north and south of the building – organized in two and three flights of twenty-two and seventeen steps, respectively – stood in contrast to an open stairway arranged as two flights of twenty steps, positioned in the central reception hall.

Trio in red yellow blue could be understood in either of two modes. The viewer could perform the score (deliberately, or inadvertently) in active, physical terms when ascending or descending the three sets of stairs, guided by the changing sequence and frequency of red, yellow and blue. Alternatively, Trio invited a purely visual “sight reading” of each stairway from landings or other vantage points where the lines were visible.