“I visited [Beethoven’s] house and he had a whole cabinet of ear trumpets that he used. I was really fascinated with them as sculptural forms.” -John Baldessari

Give a low call of "hello" or “boo!” into the trumpet, then wait and listen for Beethoven’s music to respond. When activated, a fragment of a Beethoven string quartet plays through the oversize ear trumpet. In this work, Baldessari explores the paradox of one of history’s most important classical composers, Ludwig van Beethoven, who wrote his most radical music when he was completely deaf.