Steve McQueen plays a concerto without musicians at Dia Beacon

By Cyrus Goberville.

Published on 13 May 2025. Updated on 29 July 2025.

Steve McQueen’s bass concerto at Dia Beacon

When arriving at Dia Beacon Foundation, a peaceful temple of American minimalist architecture in the Hudson Valley, New York, you will be greeted by an unusual hum – low frequencies beckon from its depths. It’s hard to ignore them, as their spectrum is so low they’re often felt more than they’re heard. Touring the collection, the sound seems to vanish, but the vibrations are never far behind.

To get to the root of these rumblings, you will have to go down a service stairwell into one of the most abstract works ever created by the British artist and Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen. A vast, empty 30,000-square-foot basement outfitted with sixty ceiling-mounted light panels that imperceptibly shift the color spectrum, and three stacks of Meyer 900-LFC subwoofers. Subtly arranged, the speakers deliver a bass concerto that builds to a crescendo in a matter of minutes.

An artist deeply attuned to sound

Sound has always been central to Steve McQueen’s work. One can think of Girls, Tricky, his vibrant 2001 portrait of the Massive Attack founder, or more recently, his ode to reggae’s Lovers Rock genre in his 2020 BBC series Small Axe. But with Bass, the artist goes further. Five outstanding bassists were brought together in the Dia basement for improvisational sessions conducted by the artist himself.

Assuming the role of conductor, McQueen guides them in exploring the sounds of an instrument that echoes the forced journey of enslaved people across the “Middle Passage” [the Atlantic crossing endured by enslaved people taken by force from Africa to be exploited in America, ed.]. The great American bassist Marcus Miller (b. 1959) syncs with the ancestral n’goni rhythms of Mamadou Kouyaté (d. 1991), brought from Mali for these site-specific recordings. The electric bass of Jamaican Aston Barrett Jr. (b. 1990) contrasts with the acoustic stylings of the young Laura Simone Martin (b. 2005), before merging with the improvisations of one of American neo soul’s rising stars, Meshell Ndegeocello (b. 1968).

This installation has no clear beginning or end. It replaces each musician with a speaker set precisely where they played to achieve the impossible: harmonic symbiosis between five distinct basses. Bathed in light, the visitors are invited to a resonant meditation on the traumatic history of a legendary instrument. One that becomes a tangible metaphor for both past and present.

Steve McQueen, exhibition open until May 26th, 2025, at the Dia Beacon Foundation, United States.
The Marian Goodman Gallery in Paris will dedicate an exhibition to Steve McQueen from May 24th to July 25th, 2025.