Pear Pressure – Fruit You Can Listen To

Amrita Sidhu, 2004, East Bay Express

It may be an unlikely place for an art installation, but the columbarium at Chapel of the Chimes currently houses a unique and arresting piece by artist Sonja Meller. Sonic Fruit is a set of music boxes in the shape of golden pears, hanging from a real tree that has been growing deep in the recesses of the mausoleum for years. Visitors can pull the strings hanging from the pears to play Brahms’ famous “Lullaby,” or “Wiegenlied.” They all play at different speeds, so you and your friends can pull them all at once to produce a strange composition of your own. Meller, a native of Austria, says she is fascinated by both the use of sound — particularly the nondigital — and the exploration of cultural spaces.

The building itself is so vast that visitors require a map to find the installation in the Garden of St. John, but the journey presents an architectural wonder itself. Designed in part by Julia Morgan, the chapel has a rare stillness and serenity. It’s a fitting location for a haunting, deranged set of lullabies drifting among the urned remains of the dead that fill the surrounding walls. You can see and hear it for free, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. daily through December 18, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Ave., Oakland. Info: 510-839-0088.

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