Unique in this exhibition, composer and artist Mark Applebaum’s (Chicago, Illinois, 1967) Metaphysics of Notation walks a perfect tightrope between music and art. Originally commissioned for the Cantor Arts Center, Applebaum originally had the idea of painting a large room with pictographic notation that would be “playable” art. He eventually created 12 large works on paper, turning them into a massive pictographic score, and the original work generated 45 separate performances played directly from his artwork. Critics have debated whether the work is principally a visual design or chiefly a musical score. Applebaum says, “I don’t have any formal training as a visual artist whatsoever . . . any ability I have to pull off the technical is a consequence of years of manuscript preparation the orthography of making musical scores.” The title indicates he is attempting to grapple with the old question of chicken or egg: Does the idea of the music come first in the mind before being translated to the page, or does the visual representation come before the music. The artist notes the formal beauty embedded in written musical scores, “the places where it is sparse, the areas where it is dense, the balance of the circular vs. rectilinear.” Balancing two of the greatest arts, Applebaum creates a hybrid form of visual elegance and aural beauty.