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FREE
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Agents of Deterioration is a choral performance by artists Maia Chao and Ethan Philbrick that responds to the Museum’s 50th-anniversary permanent collection exhibition Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960. Considering the Museum’s role in preserving artwork for future generations, the performance samples the language of art conservation in a meditation on permanence, loss, and the fragility of the future in times of ecological and political crisis. Art conservators define agents of deterioration as types of forces that cause objects to deteriorate. There are ten primary agents of deterioration: physical forces, thieves and vandals, fire, water, pests, pollutants, light, temperature, humidity, and custodial neglect. For this performance, Chao and Philbrick collaborate with young vocalists from the Children’s Chorus of Washington, DC, to create a sonice guided tour that will lead Museum visitors through the exhibition while performing a series of deteriorating choral pieces.
PERFORMANCE TIMES
Noon
2:30 PM
4 PM
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Maia Chao is an interdisciplinary artist who works collaboratively in performance, video, and social practice. She is co-creator of the social practice project Look at Art. Get Paid. Chao has shown at The Shed, Tufts University Galleries, RISD Museum, Kellen Gallery at Parsons School of Design, Bronx Museum, and Cuchifritos Gallery. Chao was named a 2022 Pew Fellow and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in 2023. Currently, she is Public Artist in Residence at the Times Square Alliance and has forthcoming exhibitions at Oregon Contemporary (2024) and Boston Center for the Arts (2025). She is a member of the Philadelphia art collective and DIY art space Vox Populi, and holds the position of Professor of Social Practice at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Ethan Philbrick is a cellist, performance artist, and writer. He holds a PhD in performance studies from New York University and has taught performance theory and practice at Pratt Institute, Muhlenberg College, New York University, Wesleyan College, Yale University, and the New School. He is currently performance curator-in-residence at the Poetry Project in New York City. In 2023, Philbrick published Group Works: Art, Politics, and Collective Ambivalence with Fordham University Press. He is part of the musical-theatrical project DAYS and has presented solo and collaborative performances at The Kitchen, NYU Skirball, Wesleyan Center for the Arts, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, and Grey Art Museum. His musical performances have been called “overwhelmingly beautiful” and “extremely strange” in The Nation, and his writing has been characterized as “rich and fascinating” in e-flux.
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS
Children’s Chorus of Washington (CCW) provides outstanding music education and performance opportunities for over 250 youth in grades K–12, regardless of background, economic status, or prior experience. CCW fosters students’ growth as musicians and leaders by emphasizing artistic excellence, personal responsibility, and working together toward a common goal. Led by Artistic Director Margaret Nomura Clark and Executive Director Robbie Jacobs, CCW is internationally recognized and critically acclaimed for its outstanding artistry, collaborates frequently with Greater Washington’s leading artists and arts organizations, and maintains an active performance schedule that reaches thousands of audience members on local, national, and international stages.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960 highlights works from the early half of the Museum’s collection. Working alongside new technologies, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, and rapidly expanding cities, while also responding to World Wars I and II, artists in both Europe and North America invented dramatically novel approaches to art-making during this time. This period saw the development of abstraction in Western art, the increased use of nontraditional materials, and the rise of conceptualism—the notion that the idea behind an artwork is more important than the art object itself. Many artists used their work to comment on social and political issues; others looked inward, making art that dealt with personal expression or the problems of form. Revolutions is primarily organized chronologically but also opens dialogues across history, with select contemporary artworks installed in conversation with modern masterworks to demonstrate how ideas and approaches formulated from 1860 to 1960 remain critical today.
If you have questions or a request for additional access services or accommodations that can make your experience more inclusive, please contact hirshhornexperience@si.edu. One to two weeks’ advance notice is recommended but not required.
Image: Agents of Deterioration (2024) by Maia Chao and Ethan Philbrick, performed by the Children’s Chorus of Washington at the Hirshhorn Museum. Photo: Maia Chao
