La Monte Young’s Tribeca art space, Dream House, enters its 30th season
Nov. 22, 2023, 4:48 p.m.
The idea was to create a room that would play long, sustained tones, constantly, for 100 years. The current version has been running since 1993.
Downtown Manhattan's long-running sound-and-light installation the Dream House has reopened for its 30th season, after briefly shuttering for maintenance and repairs.
First conceived in the early 1960s by La Monte Young — the giant of minimal music who inspired Brian Eno and John Cale and was in a band with Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns — the original iteration was built above his loft on Church Street in 1966.
Young’s idea was to create a room that would play long, sustained tones, constantly, for 100 years. The current version, one floor above the same loft space, has been running since 1993.
“The Dream House is one of my greatest inventions,” said Young, who maintains that his work can only be truly experienced over long periods of listening and repeated visits.
“Music and light take place in time, and ideas can only evolve and develop over time if you have a situation set up that provides time," he said.
Young and his wife, the artist Marian Zazeela, rent the entire building except the ground-floor restaurant. They live one floor below the Dream House, and once told Rolling Stone that living with the sound was “like heaven on earth.”
Young’s student and disciple Jung Hee Choi, who is set to take over the project when the 88-year-old artist dies, adds that the Dream House is distinct from what most people think of as an art installation.
“Installation art is often associated with a temporary project,” Choi said. “But the concept of the Dream House is absolutely unique in that it is a permanent-basis artistic ecosystem.”
So what is it, exactly?
Describing the Dream House is a bit futile, but this much is accurate: Ring the buzzer outside the loft building at 275 Church St., between 2 p.m. and midnight Wednesday through Saturday, and someone will eventually let you in.
Climb two flights of creaky stairs and you’ll find a volunteer sitting at a small desk in a cramped hallway. The door to the Dream House thrums with palpable vibrations from the sound within. No shoes, photos or video, but a $10 suggested donation is welcome.
Inside, Young’s permanent sound installation of electronically generated sine waves — single frequencies devoid of overtones, considered the purest form of sound — combines with a permanent light installation by Zazeela.
The space is soft pink, neon purple, and incredibly loud; you hear the music with your body as much as with your ears. Giant speaker cabinets surround the small room, which is lined with wall-to-wall carpeting and has pillows strewn about the floor. Lounging is encouraged, as Young’s work deliberately invites visitors to slow down and experience the present.
The slightest movement changes the sound immensely. Turn your head to one side, or bend down, or raise an arm, and the tone will resonate in different ways throughout your body.
The newest season of the Dream House overlays a sound composition by Choi on top of Young’s composition and features a light-based sculpture by Choi.
“It’s sound- and light-based, and these are two mediums that don’t get the same attention as, say, painting or sculptural work in the art-commerce world,” said John Pugh, a working artist who's volunteered to mind the door at the Dream House for 22 years.
“It’s really hard to bottle up sound and light and sell it to rich people so they can put it on a wall, or in their yacht, or whatever it is they do with art these days,” Pugh said in front of the door on a recent Friday afternoon. He said he's seen people spend more than two hours in the Dream House — and people who turn right around and leave.
A recent first-time visitor, Tagor Goldman, fell in the latter camp.
“It’s not what I was expecting at all,” Goldman said. “I was kind of expecting it to just be some sort of sleeping den, or something to kind of calm down. It's actually quite jarring, I'm kind of shaking almost. That was quite unsettling, but in the best way possible.”
The Dream House is located at 275 Church St. To enter, visit between 2 p.m. and midnight Wednesday through Saturday. The suggested donation is $10. For more information and an occasional schedule of live performances in the space, visit the MELA Foundation’s website.
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