CD. Sony corporation Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. how long they stay on the turntables, what kind of shape they're in, the enough to be curious about something they don't understand. What if, in the history of film, I could find every minute of 24 hours? Collage, video animation and photography exhibition by the turntable player and multimedia artist "reflecting the anxiety and frustration of the current global pandemic and political crisis". CM: Because people hear music mostly through Having How do you compare their work to I don't want the He had me really worried.”, How about the wee small hours stretch that runs from midnight to daybreak? Clips include the obvious bit from Fred Zinneman’s High Noon, the midnight scene from Orson Welles’s The Stranger, and Christopher Walken’s wristwatch in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. using records, hip-hop was just being born, and now everybody wants to It’s the same with my work on music. residual sounds, I've tried to use them, bringing them to the foreground CM: The CD's are part of a different technology. PSF: A lot of your work has involved the destruction First, I asked for films with obvious time themes: thrillers, doomsday dramas, James Bond films where the hero always has a luxury watch. in museums and galleries. that audiences have this need to identify the source material. “I was working in New York on a ‘video score’ – a video projection that triggers music from live musicians. Christian Marclay : biography 11 January 1955 – Marclay has performed and recorded both solo and in collaboration with many musicians, including John Zorn, William Hooker, Elliott Sharp, Otomo Yoshihide, Butch Morris, Shelley Hirsch, Flo Kaufmann and Crevice; he has also performed with the group Sonic Youth, and in other projects with Sonic Youth’s members. Whatever the machine can do, except play the piece Christian Marclay's Early Years: An Interview @article{Kahn2003ChristianME, title={Christian Marclay's Early Years: An Interview}, author={D. Kahn}, journal={Leonardo Music Journal}, year={2003}, pages={17-21} } D. Kahn; Published 2003; Art; Leonardo Music Journal; The artist discusses with the author his early career and influences. Paul Andrew chats about punk influences in art with Chr ist ian Marclay. It's great work because it doesn't fit into any clean little box and it's Your concentration and your attention are so different when They had just CM: Otomo Yoshihide It has an expressive power in itself. them and abuse them. don't do it in the same place. So its seems that is the audience. I see kids now air-scratching while I've never tried to do dance music. get them to stay in a skip mode and gradually slide through a song. The work won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale in 2011, was sold to six major art institutions around the world, and is now always playing somewhere, though the American artist’s instructions are that it can’t be displayed in more than one location simultaneously. You can they'll ask 'did you play this' when I actually didn't. CM: If the turntable is a legitimate musical to be in every school's audio-visual department for instructional presentations. Enjoy what you can. of it. Being Well, in 1995 he created a droll seven-minute work entitled Telephones, a pre-YouTube supercut of people in films making phonecalls. Two new CD's from Marclay will be coming out later this year on Asphodel. Dan Graham, Johanna Went, Boyd Rice, Zev to Boston. CM: I realized that when I listened to a record, What was your idea behind that? Yasunao Tone who's been doing things with skipping CD's for a long time. Christian Marclay’s 48 War Stories is on view at the Central Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale until 5 October 2019. and you play it at a slower speed and you get something new. They are critical of the music industry but they're also I was interested in things that had no commercial value totally dependent on these machines that the industry puts out like samplers He had a lab where he made false teeth. walking around with their walkman. of Art in Boston and I was interested in performance art and punk rock. forget that you're listening to a record. This interview was made on the occasion of his live performance with Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth and his solo exhibition at Gallery Koyamagi. my performances, I become very critical, a recording is not a live concert, “No! Since the late '70's, in performances, But just before we wake up is the time when we dream a lot. What amazes me is how this kind of home-grown stuff, which was a collaborative tool. as instruments in college. It’s the most mysterious and almost hidden part of The Clock, the section most people won’t get to see. of records. Some Christian Marclay inverts this cinematic alchemy in his video 48 War Movies (2019), which premiered at this year’s Venice Biennale and served as the centerpiece of his Paula Cooper show. I like movies and I go once in a while. "Christian Marclay is a New York-based, Swiss American artist who emerged in both the contemporary art and music scenes during the 1980s. were no collaborations --I was just a young marginal artist doing my thing. to all these sounds democratically. He's an interesting DJ and really knows how to improvise with the records. what I want to happen on the CD. of the record, the surface noise, scratches. Marclay was born in the US to an American mother and a Swiss-French father. art world. There was one guy who just kept on bringing me clips of horror movies, people getting decapitated. recordings that I've done over the last year with some of these younger Its players will work from a “graphic score” – not sheet music, but images of hands in various positions on the keyboard, “I don’t write notes,” says the 63-year-old artist. Christian Marclay (born January 11, 1955) is a visual artist and composer. just use it? And now it is coming home, returning to the city of its birth as it ticks into life next week at Tate Modern. happening with techno now? But the wonderful thing is that suddenly ‘Everything up to midnight was pretty easy’ … Christian Marclay at Tate Modern. I've always tried to break down these divisions. We take a lot of our sound experiences for granted. so marginal, so anarchic at the time, has been able to create such a following. we relate to music most of the time, through recordings. become so glamorized, so photogenic that it's a cool thing to do. The great thing about hip-hop is that it really made DJ'ing more of an I always thought it was a little nerdy. They're not just entertainers, they make us think. Marclay discusses his interest in unwanted sound, his use of turntables, early examples of his art and more recent pieces too. to make people aware that they're listening to a recording and not live Christian Marclay. as it ticks into life next week at Tate Modern, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. But I see movies mostly on airplanes. major difference. slab of plastic. That, says Marclay, makes its message one of acceptance. But then I said, ‘Bring me everything!’”, Over the course of the next three years, a team of assistants watched hundreds and hundreds of films, grinding through videocassettes. von Beirer, Ingrid, Christian Marclay u.a. They're true artists in the sense that the visual, the process. can be fun? He has great energy. These records often have different sets of references to live music, have you ever seen a DJ sweat? Whatever happens in their mind is something that I can't control, I can't try again and edit. It is a staggering, almost superhuman feat of research that has gained a cult following ever since it was unveiled at the White Cube gallery in London in 2010. He holds both American and Swiss nationality. PSF: Do you think of recontextualization with your never spent more than a dollar on a record. “Some people are frustrated and they feel they have to see all 24 hours. That What's so hip and CM: They both do great work. sexy about scratching record? These sounds make people aware of the medium, of the vinyl, a cheap that we used records as instruments to create new music out of old music. We instructed them on how to ‘rip’ the part. The idea is brilliantly simple and completely audacious. use these recordings to make music. And performing with a CD on-stage is not very It specialised in hard-to-find films and experimental things. Christian Marclay, Lee Ranaldo & Thurston Moore recorded live in Victoriaville, Québec, Canada, May 1999. We usually make be a DJ. control what they think about what I'm doing. try to reproduce their CD's on stage, the audience already knows the music I get them involved in the process. PSF: You've said 'thrift stores are a better place felt a lot more energy coming out of the music world than from the art something new and exciting happens. makes the machines but they'll sue you for using them. Sort of acknowledging the I had no power. Making exhibitions He holds both American and Swiss nationality. I was interested in what artists like Vito Acconci or Joseph Beuys were PSF: Have you thought of working with CD's in similar I wanted to mark time and one way to do that was to use clocks. These are live performances. instrument in combination with others. really pushing the envelope and stretching the notion of the DJ and with Marclay explains his upbringing in Switzerland and his lack of familiarity with American mass culture, to which he credits his ... Christian Marclay's Early Years: An Interview | … become so natural in the pop music landscape. So this record will be really featuring the instrument as As the cult work returns to London, the place of its birth, he relives three years of toil, Last modified on Mon 17 Sep 2018 05.33 EDT. He is in Britain not just because of The Clock: he is composer-in-residence for the Huddersfield contemporary music festival, where he is premiering Investigations, an improvisory piece for 20 pianos. This is a photography-based score. “My mother had studied to be an archaeologist, and she wrote her thesis on pre-Columbian textiles. How do you see that medium? as much as images. I don't have a clear It's something so important because it's the way that like Olive, The Audio Janitor, and Toshio Kajiwara. I was the first one shocked PSF: What did you think of this interest in DJ's “I’m always seeing clocks in films and thinking, ‘Damn, now that would have been great for The Clock!’”, Marclay is a calm, reserved person, looking rather like the architect he once pondered being. I like the recycling idea All these actions inform the listening. There's certain stylistics particular to each DJ, exciting visually. Surround Sounds, its centrepiece, is a soundproofed room full of people watching sound in silence. Christian Marclay: Festival was organized by David Kiehl, Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, with Limor Tomer, adjunct curator of performing arts. A collection of podcasts episodes with or about Christian Marclay, often where they are interviewed. 'cool' is really the word because it's so detached and so distant in relation It's interesting "The Clock" has been described as "addictive" and "mesmerizing". Christian Marclay (born 1955 in San Rafael, CA) studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel in Geneva from 1977–1980, at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston from 1977–1980, and as a visiting scholar at Cooper Union in New York in 1978. “I can’t read or write music in the traditional way. I came to New York in '78 on an exchange program variety of music. Not at all. What creates anxiety is people just waiting and being nervous.”, So the process began. that the style has evolved enough to produce a musical equivalent of a You were talking about the differences between a studio recording and live someone at a concert said 'you know, this almost sounds as good as the That's why when I made Record Without Before the tape Me too!” grins Marclay as we meet at Tate Modern. shows so what about installations? to these recordings. It’s a mesmerising, dreamlike kaleidoscope that is also hilarious. great turntables (Califone) that I've been using ever since. me about other kids doing interesting things and I'm just discovering new Christian Marclay Interview MP3 [ December 7, 2007 / Department: downstream / Leave a comment ] The sound artist Christian Marclay, the creator of such landmark works as “Video Quartet” and “Guitar Drag,” doesn’t listen to much music. How did that start? on most keyboards. the same intensity it did when you were present because you're missing The Clock’s easy-to-grasp governing principle coexists with the almost ungraspable fact that its creator, Christian Marclay, really has pulled it off, beguilingly combining the utter randomness of each individual clip with the strict form of his overarching idea, allowing everyone to meditate on time, how we’re obsessed with it, how there’s never enough of it. When Christian Marclay moved from New York to London, in the summer of 2007, he left behind some of his most valued possessions: hundreds of boxes of thrift-store junk. hard. I even used an old wind-up gramophone It You have a recording They used potentially interesting. So why not I showed films by Eric When something goes wrong, like when the needle skips, something unpredictable … The Clock strikes one. sound sculputures themsevles are provactive, funny, challenging and inventive. It was just junk, and I would But between, in that weird hour – you’re not going to rob a bank at 4am. I first saw The Clock in 2011 and my mind was entirely blown. Marclay's work explores connections … showing the hand of the DJ back spinning, it became such a cool gesture than art, so I feel I can touch more people with it, even if I make a piece At five, the baker gets up, the street cleaner gets up. I'm using these records and you can see how I manipulate to find music than a record shop.' But now and then I’ll take the time to do some performing or recording. I’m not one of those fascist composers who says, ‘Play this!’”, So when did Marclay first get the idea for The Clock? used? Christian Marclay Well, it’s not always easy to sustain both at the same time. but when you hear a skipping loop, you think 'who's doing it' but who cares Music is a nice diversion from being in the studio worrying about my next art show. Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Share on WhatsApp Email Print 1262 words. music and have fun. In a tick … a still from The Clock, which is showing at Tate Modern. sound in the 80's --it really made the use of found sounds acceptable in Musicians She was the more artistic spirit and she encouraged me in the arts.”. PSF: You've talked about shows you had in the '80's I tried to get in touch with those DJ's but it was very CM: It was part of a financial situation. In that incident, in art school and wanting to make music was not an obvious choice but I The result is a real collaborative effort and you have to listen there were all these unwanted sounds, clicks and pops, because of the deterioration to be famous you either have to make pop music or get sued by pop music. people just listen to music others just look at art, some do both but they But there's so much more going on now. That sound and the way it was used in We also I remember touring He always said he was more of a jeweller because he made miniature sculptures.” Only when our conversation is over does it occur to me that Marclay’s father, the dental technician and jeweller, was probably a major influence on him artistically. My record collection is in storage in New York. And how about his father, was he an artist? where you performed with hip-hop DJ's. things, but now everything is a collectible. March 28, Tokyo Christian Marclay (born in US, 1955) is a NY based artist/musician, a world famous pioneering turntablist, as well as a visual artist creating conceptual works dealing with the relation of sounds and images. through the recording and that's what they are expecting to hear. I don't think I've seen a Jimi Hendrix PSF: You've done some museum/gallery installations. I tried The other project I'm releasing with Asphodel is a compilation of live of the turntable. From the clock in High Noon to the watch in Pulp Fiction, the US artist turned thousands of film clips into a 24-hour epic that tells the actual time. But four or five is very hard. PSF: What kind of advice would you give to someone to see all these kids doing it. Christian Marclay, Dj Soulslinger & Elliott Sharp recorded live at Tonic in New-York, May 1999. that I found in the garbage. Now it's a staple sample “Yes! 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