MoCP - Darkroom 2023

Alice Hargrave (United States, b. 1962), Midnight Calls, Nightingale 

Alice Hargrave works in photography, installation, and video to explore impermanence. In her body of work titled Last Calls, the artist worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to visually translate sound waves of bird species threatened by extinction. For exhibitions, Hargrave often prints the sound wave file patterns onto delicate fabrics and hangs them in arrangements around the room accompanied by the recorded sounds of the bird calls. This image depicts the sounds of a Nightingale—a bird that has inspired many poets and musicians with its complex and far-reaching tonal range. Hargrave’s work informs people on their role in declining species while also visually mourning the many layers of this loss.  

Alice Hargrave’s work has been included in exhibitions nationally and internationally, including the Hyde Park Art Center, IL (2016); Newspace Center for Photography, OR (2015); Yale University Art Gallery, CT (2000); the Smart Museum of Art, IL (1998); and the Chicago Cultural Center (2000, 1998, 1991), among others. This project was recently exhibited in Lianzhou, China and won an Individual Illinois Arts Council Artist Grant (2020). Hargrave’s work is held in several permanent collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago Artist Book Collection, the Ruttenberg Collection, Nuveen, Hyatt Corp, and many private collections.

https://www.alicehargrave.com/