Call and response is a universal, ancient form of musical expression. “Echoes from Within” is a contemporary musical “response” to the visual “call” of Cy Twombly’s paintings. As the event progresses, Wu Wei (on traditional Chinese sheng) and Shawn Conley (on contrabass) travel from room to room, responding to the surrounding visual fields and to each other. This work was commissioned by the Menil Collection and premiered in the Cy Twombly Gallery on September 6-7 (four concerts).

“I let it inside to create, to regenerate, to make it stronger rather than let it go out all at once like a flash in the eye. I made art that regenerates itself. I enjoyed making it so much. Oh! I loved it so much…the strength of the memory that is left behind.” 

Cy Twombly (from Nicola del Roscio, ed., Cy Twombly: Catalogues Raisonné of Drawings, vol. II, 1956-1960 (Munich, 2012), pp. 5-6.

“Every line is thus the actual experience with its unique story. It does not illustrate; it is the perception of its own realization.” 

-Twombly, 1957

《Echoes from Within: a Musical Response to Cy Twombly》 (笙、bass and electronics，與作曲家Kurt Stallmann 合作，2018) ，是受休士頓 The Menil Collection 委託、 為Cy Twombly 美術館量身製作，45分鐘全場無休的作品，由三位演奏者表(包括現場電子音樂操縱的演奏者) 帶領著觀眾游移於整個美術館八個空間。除了互相對應之外，更重要的是與現代畫家 Cy Twombly的畫對話，重新認識這些抽象化畫、場地、空間，及其加上聲音所帶來的感受。