THE RECORD: CONTEMPORARY ART AND VINYL
Pour des Dents d’un Blanc Éclatant et Saines. Jeroen Diepenmaat. 2005.
The Henry Art Gallery up on the UW campus featured a must-see exhibit sometime back. The vinyl record as art, explored through a number of channels- sculpture, installation, drawing, painting, photography, sound work, and video- ’twas terrific!
We began in the foyer, where a wall of albums from local artists beckoned with a turntable awaiting play on a small table in the center of the room. Sadly, this mauled bit of needle put the kibosh on all such indulgence.
This familiar childhood relic was found behind glass, though quite the dirty specimen, it was. Mine resides in the walk-in closet on display for play, and is in much better condition, as is the one I found for my sister several months back.
“Recycled Records” series. Christian Marclay. 1983.
Christian Marclay was featured quite heavily in the exhibit to my delight, as his work always seems to catch my attention. Video Quartet from a previous showing is of particular note- a large, four-screen projection that features clips from old Hollywood films, hundreds of them, with actors making sounds and playing instruments, in a captivating collage of appropriation art and sampling.
Outsider artist Mingering Mike’s collection was there in all its outsider glory. It was originally unearthed years ago at a flea market, a number of funk and soul albums from the late ’60s and early ’70s, seemingly. Upon closer inspection, they were in fact cardboard discs with hand-drawn grooves inside elaborately illustrated covers. The storage place that had once housed them had sold them off after Mike had fallen behind on payments, and he’d thought they were gone forever. Happily not so! Groovy detail- some of the albums even featured pretend shrink wrap— saran wrap and scotch tape.