Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet at PS1

Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet: A Reworking of 'Spem in Alium' by Thomas Tallis features forty separately recorded voices singing a multilayered composition about god played on forty separate speakers. It's an extraordinary aural experience, as what you hear changes as you go from speaker to speaker or stand in different parts of the room. 

Some art makes you feel as if you could take on the world, emboldening you or infusing you with courage, while other pieces make you want to hug everyone and everything you see, almost crushing you with pathos or emotion. Forty Part Motet simultaneously emphasizes our smallness and interconnectedness: alone, we are infinitesimal; together, we are not. Given its power, it's no surprise that curators chose to exhibit this work as part of an attempt to explore September 11 in contemporary art, currently on view at PS1. Oh, sure, the 'we're stronger together' bit is most decidedly a cliche, but spend 14 minutes (the duration of the piece) with Cardiff's work and see if you don't suddenly believe it to be gospel.