Sound Installation

Max Neuhaus began his career as a musician, a percus-sionist. He continues to use sound as his medium. Why. then, do we find his works in the world of art, in places dedicated to seeing, not to listening? Why, in other words, does so much of his work appear on sites, indoors and out, where we would expect to find painting and sculpture? I think answers to these general questions about Neuhaus entire oeuvre must precede the attempt to say anything in particular about specific pieces. We must account for what appears to be an immense, overarching anomaly before taking up the puzzles presented in turn by each of Neuhaus various works.

Carter Ratcliff