The Language of Birds takes visitors on a guided tour through a transformed Evergreen Cemetery, seen and heard through the mythology of birdsong and the perception-altering power of dragon’s blood. Part of the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History's new festival CommonGround, the event seeks to uncover hidden and imaginary histories of Evergreen Cemetery and the surrounding Harvey West Park area. While the sound installation and sculptures will be on display throughout the second weekend of CommonGround, we invite you to join us for a guided tour and live performance from 5pm until dusk.

The guided tour begins at Evergreen Cemetery, before proceeding through Harvey West Park.

September 22 – 24, 2022
Open daily from 12pm - 5pm
Guided tour and performance begins at 5pm by reservation

The Language of Birds

The Language of Birds takes visitors on a guided tour through a transformed Evergreen Cemetery, seen and heard through the mythology of birdsong and the perception-altering power of dragon’s blood. Audiences will be immersed in the site through a series of activities by composer Carolyn Chen, seeking to reframe our perception of the landscape and soundscape. Sculptural installations by artist Natalie Jenkins obscure and refract this environment through acoustic illusion and obfuscation, while hidden speakers tell stories of the natural and human history as collected by Chen.

Ticketed performances include a docent-led tour and the performance of a new composition by Carolyn Chen for voices and strings, taking a nod from early music and transcriptions of birdsong.

Carolyn Chen

Carolyn Chen has made music for supermarket, demolition district, and the dark. Her work reconfigures the everyday to retune habits of our ears, through sound, text, light, image, and movement. Recent projects include a marble chase and commissions for Klangforum Wien and the LA Phil New Music Group.

Described by The New York Times as “the evening’s most consistently alluring … a quiet but lush meditation,” Chen’s work has been supported by the Fulbright Program, Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, Stanford University Sudler Prize, ASCAP Foundation Fred Ho Award, and commissions from MATA Festival. The work has been presented at festivals and exhibitions in 24 countries, at venues including Carnegie Hall and the Kitchen (New York), Disney Hall and the Geffen MOCA (Los Angeles), the Menil Collection (Houston), Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Guggenheim Bilbao, CYCLE Festival (Iceland), and the Institute for Provocation (Beijing). Her writing appears in MusikTexte, Experimental Music Yearbook, and New Centennial Review. Chen earned a Ph.D. in music from UC San Diego, and a M.A. in Modern Thought and Literature and B.A. in music from Stanford University.