For an exhibit with a naked man in a bathtub as the cover art, The Visitors at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is nothing short of beautiful.

The artist, Ragnar Kjartansson, gathers multiple musicians known for playing different instruments and scatters them in various rooms of an aging mansion in order to create a video masterpiece. Each musician has a very distinct area they are set up to play the song, though the kicker is that they can all only hear what the others are playing through a set of headphones they are wearing. A.K.A. they are not looking at cues from someone or interacting with the other musicians, they are just listening and reacting.

Once all the musicians have entered their rooms, a soft melody begins with the strumming of Ragnar’s guitar and then, slowly, everyone else joins in. The result is simply haunting.

The audience enters in a pitch black room, with the only source of light being the projected screens set up. Eight of the screens portray solo shots of musicians with their selected instrument(s), including the artist himself inside a bathtub, naked, and playing the guitar. The ninth screen shows an entire group of people that were identified as musicians, the home’s residents, and friends of Ragnar. This set up makes it interactive for the audience by forcing you to walk around and look at each of the artists at least once. It makes it okay to sit down, lay down, stand in a corner or stand in the middle of multiple screens and just witness the music that unravels.

This is purposeful.

By giving the audience the freedom to walk around and focus on one artist the entire time or multiple from where they are sitting, it allows them to experience the exhibit alone paralleling the musicians' own situation in their rooms. The whole performance acts as a metaphor for life that can either be interpreted seriously or humorously. I mean, the artist himself is naked in a bathtub. You could see that and believe it to mean him showing this piece and being in a state of vulnerability or you could just see a naked man singing in a tub.

Now I know you are asking yourself, “Okay, yeah that is great and sure there is a naked man in the tub and that is kind of funny, but why should I go and see this?”

To be absolutely and completely frank, BECAUSE IT WILL CHANGE YOUR WORLD.

Well, I mean, maybe not your entire world but at least a smidge.

Not only does it give you something to do this weekend, but it also makes you question things about your own life. It makes you think which musician you would most identify with and with the entire song revolving around the one line, “Once again, I fall into my feminine ways”, it makes you wonder what are the things you continuously fall into, whether it be for good or for bad.

What do you keep falling into?

Is it procrastination? Regrets? The past? Temptations? Or is it love? The arms of a loved one? Hope? The beauty of life?

No matter what you are falling into, there will always be others around you going falling into their own things but that doesn’t mean when you come together you will not create something beautiful.

The exhibit runs until February 12 - take your friends, your pup, your significant other, your teacher, just yourself, or even the person who always takes the washer/drier when you need it, BUT NO MATTER WHAT, GO.