Project: Bass
A Vibrant Symphony
The British artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen installed “Bass” at DIA Beacon. The immersive environment spans 35,000 feet, with 60 lightboxes that cycle through the spectrum of visible light as bass music plays.
When the DIA Art Foundation invited Steve McQueen to create a work for its museum in Beacon, N.Y., the curators assumed that he’d propose a film or video project. It made sense: McQueen is the British director of the Oscar-winning best picture “12 Years a Slave” (2013) and other acclaimed movies such as “Hunger” and “Shame.” And long before that, he was already a prominent contemporary artist known for experimental films with wildly varying themes, lengths, and display methods, often in museum galleries.
