OMAHA, NEB.- Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts presents Root of Two, a major solo exhibition by Tel Aviv-based sound artist Maya Dunietz from May 7 through September 18, 2022. Comprised of 8 sculptures and room-sized installations unfolding across Bemis Center’s expansive galleries, Dunietz has composed a four month long performance. As the viewer engages with each work, the works become an ensemble, connecting across the galleries through the viewer’s encounters.

Dunietz creates an unexpected sensory experience with each work, penetrating and exploring different aspects of her oeuvre, which expands over a 25-year career as a composer, musician, and sound artist. However, as sound materializes, the pieces evolve and intertwine, allowing for a transformative experience. In the traditional sense, the works are independent as discrete objects, and yet resonate with each other sonically, visually and physically as visitors walk through the galleries.

Commissioned for the exhibition, Bemis Center presents one of Dunietz’s most largest works to date, √2, from 2022. Composed of seventeen pianos, donated from people throughout Omaha and the region, they are envisioned by the artist as beasts grazing on the Great Plains — they roar and sing, tremble and snore, and seemingly come alive through transducers embedded in each piano. Programmed through computer software and physically linked through a network of cables, the transducers “play” on (and through) the pianos a new score by Dunietz that explores the infiniteness and irrationality of the square root of two. Her composition continuously searches for that perfect middle ground, but never quite attains it. Visitors are invited to touch, stroke and lay down on and amongst these groaning beasts, feeling the sound through their bones, as well as their ears. Through her varied practice, Dunietz explores pyschoacoustics, and this work is a prime example of how the interaction of the sounds from the pianos mixes with our human experience, expanding how sound is perceived.

Of the 8 featured works, 7 were created by Dunietz expressly for this exhibition. Several of these pieces involve in-depth creative collaborations, which highlights an important factor of Dunietz’s artistic practice as both a musician and visual artist. For this exhibition, she developed pieces with friends and colleagues: David Lemoine, Daniel Meir, Ghedalia Tazartes, Amit Drori, Asi Oren, Eyal Fogel, Uri Sinai, Yair Reshefuri Sinai, Eyal Fogel, Yoel Peled, Asi Oren, and Shirel Inglese.

“After five years of working through various ideas and stages, including Maya’s residency at Bemis Center in fall of 2021, we are thrilled to open this expansive and important exhibition at Bemis,” Rachel Adams, Bemis’s Chief Curator and Director of Programs and the exhibition’s curator, states. “Maya’s practice is extremely collaborative, which is something we value greatly. Her works make one think about sound in new ways especially through all your senses, which really speaks to her thoughts on equity. Adding this exhibition to Bemis Center’s history of originating innovative exhibitions, while also tying into the new Sound Art and Experimental Music Program, is exciting.”

Root of Two is accompanied by a scholarly exhibition catalogue, published by X Artists’ Books and designed by Omnivore. Contributors include, Rachel Adams, Chris Cook, Maya Dunietz, Michael Pisaro, Galit Eilat, Ariel Ashbel, Chen Tamir, Marcella Lista, Ran Kasmy Ilan and Keren Rosenbaum.

Maya Dunietz is a composer, performer and sound artist, working in the uncommon space between music, visual art, technological research, philosophy, and performance. For the past thirty years, she has performed and exhibited widely internationally. Her compositions have been commissioned by renowned ensembles and performers including Saar Berger (Ensemble Modern), Meitar Ensemble, Bat Kol Choir, and the Hyperion Ensemble, among others. She was guest professor as the Schusterman Resident at CalArts and as a guest artist at the Cité internationale des arts. Some of her most important site-specific sound installations have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo Paris, Arnolfini Gallery Bristol, Reykjavik Arts Festival, and the Jerusalem Botanical Gardens. Solo exhibitions include The Centre Pompidou, Frac Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art. Her installation Thicket is part of the collection of The Centre Pompidou.