1976
Max Neuhaus created several sound installations that occupied interior architectural spaces, sometimes referred to as "rooms". These works were central to his shift from musical performance to using sound as a material to create a "place".
Various museum installations: Neuhaus also created "room" works in various museum settings, such as at MoMA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Drawings describing methods for the creation of spaces which, although visually alike, are transformed into contrasting places by Neuhaus with the addition of sound alone.
A few of his notable "rooms" include:
Exhibition: Rooms, PS1, 1976
First created for the Clocktower Gallery in New York and later reconstituted at the Frac Franche-Comté in France, this was a site-specific installation focused on the acoustics of a square room. The title came from the type of chairs Neuhaus found in the space.
● Three Similar Rooms (1989):
Three 'Similar' Rooms by Max Neuhaus, Galleria Giorgio Persano, Turin, Italy, Extant: 1990-fall 2020 Exhibited by Giorgio Persano, this installation played with the similarities and differences in perception of three distinct spaces. The work continued his exploration of how subtle, continuous sound can define and differentiate otherwise identical or similar locations.
● Two Identica lRoom,1989
TWO IDENTICAL ROOMS By Max Neuhaus. (TEXT) 1989
'The first one, Two Identical Rooms (1989), which was done in Hamburg, takes two wings of a very large exhibition space and treats them with sound textures which are opposite in nature. One on one side is like a fluid; it envelops you when you walk into the space. The other is a texture of very dense clicks which seems to be suspended over your head when you walk into the space. Both sounds are at levels which demand that you focus when you walk into the space. When you first enter these spaces, you see nothing and you hear nothing; after a few seconds through searching, your aural focus shifts and you realize you're in one of these textures. This work was in the context of the visual exhibition, two empty spaces adjoining other spaces which were highly charged with objects.
Archive text Max Neuhaus Estate
● Two Side for the'Same' Room,1990
Two Sides of the 'Same' Room by Max Neuhaus, Text (English, Franch, Italian) 1990.
Four 'Identical' Rooms, 2000
FOUR 'IDENTICAL' ROOMS by Max Neuhaus, 2000 (Unrealized )
- Pencil on paper - 40 x 64 cm Sound work references: Unrealized proposal. The Studio drawing was created for a project that never materialized. The study Four 'identical' rooms, is part of the works Rooms