As part of the exhibition Cory Arcangel: Family Office, the work Hail Mary (2022–) is performed every Thursday at 6.30 pm by Tore Bols on the concert carillon at Stavanger Cathedral.
On 26 November (and 4 March) at 6.15 pm, the public is invited to a shared listening experience of Hail Mary, followed by a visit to the church interior for a conversation with Bols about the carillon, his collaboration with Arcangel, and what it is like to interpret Hail Mary.
Hail Mary is a composition for concert carillon that was generated daily by a Twitter bot. Stavanger Cathedral houses the oldest concert carillon in the Nordic countries, dating from 1922. With its 49 bells spanning four octaves, it is also Norway’s largest carillon. Carillons do not generally serve a religious function and can be found in town halls, churches and universities across Western Europe and North America. Historically, carillons played an important role in public life, announcing the time and other events to local residents — a function that social media could be said to fulfil today.
Carillons were automated as early as the Middle Ages, playing pre-programmed melodies using a large drum fitted with wooden pegs — a kind of oversized music box.
The title Hail Mary is inspired by a pass in American football: a long throw towards the end zone in the final seconds of a match, with a low probability of scoring. The expression is also used as a metaphor for a risky action taken when defeat seems inevitable, in the hope of a miracle. The desperation of such a pass can perhaps be compared to posting on opinion-driven online platforms such as Twitter/X. A statement is thrown out into the world in the hope that one of the many people ‘on the field’ will catch it and respond.
Tore Bols is from Stavanger and works as an organist at Hillevåg Church and as a carillonneur at Stavanger Cathedral. In addition to his organ studies, Bols holds a master’s degree in carillon performance from the Nordic Carillon School in Løgumkloster, Denmark.
Cory Arcangel (b. 1978, Buffalo, New York) is an artist, composer, curator and entrepreneur. With a background in classical guitar, he studied music technology at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio. Arcangel has enjoyed a substantial international career, with previous solo exhibitions at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst (2005), Hamburger Bahnhof (2010), the Barbican (2011), Reykjavik Art Museum (2015) and HEART – Herning Museum of Contemporary Art (2014). In 2011, he became the youngest artist to be given a solo exhibition spanning an entire floor of the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
This autumn saw the publication of The Cory Arcangel Hack: Digital Culture and Aesthetic Practice, written by Norwegian media scholar Eivind Røssaak and published by MIT Press.
