Untitled 1972

Curator: At first glance, the scattering of musical notation on this tiny square gives me the feeling of trying to grasp at something just beyond reach. Editor: This is an "Untitled" work by Ian Tyson, residing here at the Tate. Its dimensions are remarkably small, about 51 by 51 millimeters. Curator: The notes, divorced from any explicit melody, feel symbolic. Are they a lament, a fragment of cultural memory struggling to be recalled? The date "1925" is also present. Editor: It makes me think about marginalized voices in that year. Who was excluded from the cultural narratives encoded within musical forms? Curator: Yes, the symbols of music may carry different meanings depending on one's social location, even creating tensions between dominant culture and personal experience. Editor: Exactly. The seeming randomness of the notes hints at the dissonance of that time for many people. Curator: Thank you for that insight, it has deepened my own understanding of the artwork. Editor: And yours has expanded my thinking on its symbolic representation.