An audio walk in Central Park

June 16 - September 11, 2005

Janet Cardiff's Her Long Black Hair is a 35-minute journey that begins at Central Park South and transforms an everyday stroll in the park into an absorbing psychological and physical experience. Cardiff takes each listener on a winding journey through Central Park's 19th-century pathways, retracing the footsteps of an enigmatic dark-haired woman. Relayed in a quasi-narrative style, Her Long Black Hair is a complex investigation of location, time, sound, and physicality, interweaving stream-of-consciousness observations with fact and fiction, local history, opera and gospel music, and other atmospheric and cultural elements. At once cinematic and non-linear, Her Long Black Hair uses binaural technology--a means of recording that achieves incredibly precise three-dimensional sound--to create an experience of physical immediacy and complexity.

Artist Bio
Janet Cardiff is perhaps best known for her signature audio walks, which she has made in London, Florence, Pittsburgh, San Francisco, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Her gallery installations--often made with George Bures Miller, Cardiff's husband and artistic collaborator--use the narrative and technical language of film noir to create lush, suspenseful sound and video works. Janet Cardiff was born in Canada in 1957; she and Miller currently live and work in Berlin. They have recently had exhibitions at Luhring Augustine, New York (2004); Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati (2003); Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2002); and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (2002). A recent mid-career retrospective, Janet Cardiff: A Survey of Works, Including Collaborations with George Bures Miller, opened at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, Queens, in 2001 and has since traveled to Montreal, Oslo, and Turin.

Sponsorship
Janet Cardiff's Her Long Black Hair is sponsored by Bloomberg LP with additional support from the James Family Foundation.

Location
Starting June 16, the audio kit for Her Long Black Hair will be available at a kiosk at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue, Thursday through Sunday, 10:00am to 3:30pm. The last audio kit pick-up time is 3:30pm. Headsets must be returned no later than 5pm.

Viewers will be asked to leave a drivers license or credit card in exchange for the audio equipment and should allow at least one hour for the walk. The audio kit must be returned to the kiosk at 59th Street and Sixth Avenue. A map with the return route will be included.

Reservations are only available for groups of ten or more, and must be made three days in advance by calling 212-980-3942.