[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Switzer birds.jpg” caption=”Scene 6: A New Song from Sharon Switzer’s exhibit, Falling From Grace, features two chirping yellow finches. Image courtesy of the McMaster Museum of Art.”]Don't be surprised if you hear the sound of birds chirping when you enter the McMaster Museum of Art. The birds are part of an innovative audiovisual exhibit called Falling from Grace, Scenes 4, 5 and 6 by Toronto-based artist Sharon Switzer.

Scene 6: A New Song consists of a box with a lens in the top. By looking through the lens, the viewer can see a 48-second DVD loop of two yellow finches chirping to each other.

Scene 5: Little Town Blues is another box that contains a one-and-a-half minute DVD loop of a hand shaking a snowglobe with a New York skyline complete with a miniature Statue of Liberty.

Scene 4: Gravity features a waterfall projected on a wall with scrolling text that reads, “You look a little tired. Try not to dwell on it,” among other messages.

Switzer has been been creating these video-based works of art since 2000.

“My move into video was fueled by a feeling that the stillness in photography represents a type of death, in the way that the moment of representation is always already past,” says Switzer in a booklet about her artwork. “Even the simplest motion brings a moment in to the present, bringing it to life. My videos often concentrate on the smallest of movements — creating a type of moving photograph.”

A public interview with Switzer and curator Carla Garnet will be held at the Museum on Thursday, Jan. 18 at 6 p.m. Admission is free. The exhibit will be on display until Saturday, Jan. 20.

For more information, please visit the Museum's website or e-mail mcmaster@museum.ca.