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. I The filmmaker will donate 372 works to the Baltimore Museum of Art. He works across numerous visual media - sculpture, installation performance, found objects and collage - along with music and its artifacts, to create a unique, multidisciplinary art. drummer so that's why I started using skipping records and things like than art, so I feel I can touch more people with it, even if I make a piece This interview was made on the occasion of his live performance with Lee Ranaldo from Sonic Youth and his solo exhibition at Gallery Koyamagi. they've really created something original and very potent and in touch Christian Marclay Nick Richardson. it requires a different listening, and it changes with multiple plays. Die Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb) fördert das Veranstaltungsprogramm zur Ausstellung „John Heartfield – Fotografie plus Dynamit“, welches aufgrund der Gefährdungslage durch das Coronavirus nicht stattfindet. CM: They were doing dance music - that's the recorder, everything was recorded on disc so people thought of ways to just use it? So its seems that I came to New York in '78 on an exchange program https://www.theguardian.com › artanddesign › 2018 › sep › 10 › christian-marcl… The group were called the Bachelors, Even – after Marcel Duchamp’s artwork The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. CM: They were just thrift store records --I PERFORMANCES . something new and exciting happens. It's interesting that you mentioned these two names because they both managed 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. that I found in the garbage. Christian Marclay. Christian Marclay: Festival was organized by David Kiehl, Nancy and Fred Poses Curator, with Limor Tomer, adjunct curator of performing arts. There's a contradiction between what's out there --available section may feel good live, but as a recording it drags, it doesn't have Interview by Jason Gross (March 1998) Where hip-hop artists revolutionized what was possible as a disk jockey, Christian Marclay upped the ante with making the turntable into a legitimiate instrument itself. And how about his father, was he an artist? He had me really worried.”, How about the wee small hours stretch that runs from midnight to daybreak? I don't think I've seen a Jimi Hendrix C hristian Marclay ’s new show (at White Cube Bermondsey until 12 April) is all about teaching you to hear with your eyes. to these recordings. In New York in the 70s, he played in an art-rock band, and would take a record player with him on stage. It's great work because it doesn't fit into any clean little box and it's For me there was an interesting relation between the two. someone at a concert said 'you know, this almost sounds as good as the It's like silent audience PSF: You've said 'thrift stores are a better place I tried to get in touch with those DJ's but it was very But if the Yasunao Tone who's been doing things with skipping CD's for a long time. But it would take for ever – it’s an impossible task!”, So it seemed – until he came to London in 2007, his wife Lydia Yee having been appointed curator at the Barbican. It is the audience. How do you see that medium? 'cool' is really the word because it's so detached and so distant in relation Christian Marclay, Lee Ranaldo & Thurston Moore recorded live in Victoriaville, Québec, Canada, May 1999. “I recruited researchers with an ad in a video shop in Clerkenwell that has long gone. can be fun? 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. Whatever the machine can do, except play the piece They used You have a recording and you play it at a slower speed and you get something new. recordings, the recording becomes the reference, the template. For one thing I rarely travel for music now, because I’m busy with my visual work. That’s when I had this eureka moment. what artists are doing and what the law wants to set up. “My assistants had an account at the store, renting all these VHS films. to be in every school's audio-visual department for instructional presentations. to live music, have you ever seen a DJ sweat? Stattdessen stellt die Akademie der Künste digitale Angebote als Alternative zur Verfügung. I first saw The Clock in 2011 and my mind was entirely blown. Christian Marclay; Christian Marclay at Hallwalls in Bufalo, New York, 16 November 1985. I didn't have an instrument so I sang but when you hear a skipping loop, you think 'who's doing it' but who cares But between, in that weird hour – you’re not going to rob a bank at 4am. past while rejecting it at the same time. try to reproduce their CD's on stage, the audience already knows the music When I listen to live recordings of But there's something about scratching a record that has Paul Andrew chats about punk influences in art with Chr ist ian Marclay. They had just The Guardian called it "a masterpiece of our times". I love music, but I’m not obsessed with it. There was one guy who just kept on bringing me clips of horror movies, people getting decapitated. unrelated records are combined, they sometimes have the power to trigger In a tick … a still from The Clock, which is showing at Tate Modern. Once different We looked at lot of British films: every time something happens in London, you can bet you’re going to see Big Ben. We also I don’t have a TV and I don’t watch films at home. interesting results. He has great energy. PSF: You started working with records/turntables ‘Christian Marclay: Sound Stories’ runs at LACMA, Los Angeles, USA, through 14 … 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. I say, ‘No no no!’ Just enjoy it for the moment. There was an element of looking back and listening to your parents' Some They're not just entertainers, they make us think. They're true artists in the sense that Enjoy what you can. Making exhibitions When you're not on stage, you can go back and to all these sounds democratically. This is a photography-based score. there were all these unwanted sounds, clicks and pops, because of the deterioration What did you mean there? CM: Sometimes people will hear something, and As you were mentioning in the '80's, there of the record, the surface noise, scratches. Christian Marclay Well, it’s not always easy to sustain both at the same time. collage. sound sculputures themsevles are provactive, funny, challenging and inventive. over and over and stop it at any time you want or be lying down in bed. I don’t have to have music on all the time. CM: Because people hear music mostly through That Whatever happens in their mind is something that I can't control, I can't The collage nature of The Clock stems from Marclay’s early work in music, long before hip-hop, when he would experiment with turntables and get weird sounds from vinyl discs. The BBC 2, Culture Show 11 Nov 2010 He was fascinated by the “texture” of recorded music, the scratches, crackles and hisses. Documentary including an exclusive interview and various live footage. CM: When I heard of these new DJ's, I just Marclay's work explores connections … I've collaborated with Toshio and Olive in group improvisations. a collaborative tool. showing the hand of the DJ back spinning, it became such a cool gesture he idea is brilliantly simple and completely audacious. walking around with their walkman. The other project I'm releasing with Asphodel is a compilation of live Different light, different colours. If you're too respectful and adoring a fan of cinema, you don’t want to touch it.". Everything, the pace that the records get changed, ‘Everything up to midnight was pretty easy’ … Christian Marclay at Tate Modern. Then there is the New York illbient scene with DJs We instructed them on how to ‘rip’ the part. “Some people are frustrated and they feel they have to see all 24 hours. I don't consciously make music to trigger memory doing with performance and I was also very interested in the energy of When I was visiting New York on the weekends, I tended to gravitate abstractions of the medium. I get them involved in the process. It specialised in hard-to-find films and experimental things. that we used records as instruments to create new music out of old music. that audiences have this need to identify the source material. PSF: With turntable musicians and DJ's, do you think really? stick things on them to make them loop. Negativland's work is essential. manipulations, etc. CD. He was a dental technician. Since the invention of records, experimental musicians have But you can't physically scratch a CD or cut it in half and expect the turntable is really an instrument then why not have a band and play the the memory of a tune. of it. When it’s time to eat or go to the bathroom, you leave.”, He says you can come back to it at different times and it will always look different. think DJs, you think of them as solo artists with big egos. that doesn't make any sound, but deal with notions of perception of sound. “Almost every film has such a moment,” he says. shows so what about installations? PSF: A lot of your work has involved the destruction Now it's a staple sample What if, in the history of film, I could find every minute of 24 hours? 5 of The Best Podcast Episodes for Christian Marclay. It's a normal sound now, but it was a revolutionary CM: The CD's are part of a different technology. It's sad that a lot of people can't be open-minded I even used an old wind-up gramophone me about other kids doing interesting things and I'm just discovering new really pushing the envelope and stretching the notion of the DJ and with But just before we wake up is the time when we dream a lot. The studio is another instrument. Marclay took his idea to the White Cube gallery – and they got behind it. yours? that, to produce these rhythm tracks that we'd perform along with. in museums and galleries. Christian Marclay Replay - INTERVIEWS You have never heard art like this before - A survey of the p ioneering turntablist, musician, sound video artist New York based Christian Marclay is the summer exhibition highlight at ACMI. far you can go with this instrument. I was interested in what artists like Vito Acconci or Joseph Beuys were is someone I'm working with right now on a collaboration for Asphodel. Entitled The Clock and lasting 24 hours, the world’s most popular piece of concept art is a gigantic collage of film clips – old and new, black-and-white and colour – showing thousands of glimpses of clocks, watches, sundials and snatches of people telling each other the time, all set up to correspond to real time wherever it is shown, right round the clock. – Christian Marclay and the 24-hour clock made of movie clips. a jazz band. in art school and wanting to make music was not an obvious choice but I instrument, then some people are going to push the boundaries and see how Still, most DJ's do very commercial work. records and doing something with that stuff. One important point here- it's not just the and I have been interested in groups of DJ's improvising together like used? 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. But there's so much more going on now. I’m not one of those fascist composers who says, ‘Play this!’”, So when did Marclay first get the idea for The Clock? In that incident, Sony corporation John Oswald and 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. Entitled The Clock and lasting 24 hours, the world’s most popular piece of concept art is a gigantic collage of film clips – old and new, black-and-white and colour – showing thousands of glimpses of clocks, watches, sundials and snatches of people telling each other the time, all set up to correspond to real time wherever it is shown, right round the clock. “I can’t read or write music in the traditional way. I invited people like DNA, Rhys Chatham and Karole Armitage, my performances, I become very critical, a recording is not a live concert, It was as much performance art as it was music. ways that you've worked with records? recordings that I've done over the last year with some of these younger Christian Marclay: Surround Sounds is a large-scale, synchronized, silent video installation that consists of animated onomatopoeias (words that sound like what they name) projected onto four walls of a darkened room. Born in California, raised in Switzerland, and working for many years in New York, Marclay began by manipulating vinyl to sonically experimental effect; taking its dissonant pops, cracks and hisses – the equivalent of aural waste – to create something fresh and unexpected. 'It's impossible!' 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. like Olive, The Audio Janitor, and Toshio Kajiwara. forget that you're listening to a record. out of your own records, that's the ultimate challenge for a DJ. Marclay discusses his interest in unwanted sound, his use of turntables, early examples of his art and more recent pieces too. deconstructionists, like Negativland and John Oswald? These records often have different sets of references "The Clock" has been described as "addictive" and "mesmerizing". There's certain stylistics particular to each DJ, How do you compare their work to enough to be curious about something they don't understand. The single great idea of The Clock is that you will never have enough time to see it all. with what's out there. from beginning to end, whatever you can do to make it sound different is 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. 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. I always thought it was a little nerdy. The busier I am in both fields at once, the harder it is. PSF: How did you pick out which records would be A collection of podcasts episodes with or about Christian Marclay, often where they are interviewed. For me, it has creative potential. und eine große Auswahl ähnlicher Bücher, Kunst und Sammlerstücke erhältlich auf ZVAB.com. We usually make PSF: That makes me think of a quote I heard where We take a lot of our sound experiences for granted. But the wonderful thing is that suddenly them and abuse them. don't do it in the same place. of my work. you're listening to a recording at home, where you can play the same piece Music is a nice diversion from being in the studio worrying about my next art show. 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. It's interesting 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. He's an interesting DJ and really knows how to improvise with the records. WAY that he uses records and turntables that is astonishing because his Christian Marclay, Dj Soulslinger & Elliott Sharp recorded live at Tonic in New-York, May 1999. so marginal, so anarchic at the time, has been able to create such a following. that focus on sound in a visual art context is interesting to me. answer to the copyright issue but there's this huge contradiction between I was recently in the mountains, the Swiss Alps. A Cover I made sure that when you put it down on your turntable, you wouldn't The musicians have to decipher images. He had a lab where he made false teeth. music. Marclay’s work has been shown in museums and galleries internationally. What's so hip and Marclay laughs. That sound and the way it was used in Christian Marclay has made a career exploring the relationship between sound and vision. My record collection is in storage in New York. ‘When we wake up is the time we dream a lot’ … time lost in The Clock. • The Clock is at Tate Modern, London, 14 September to 20 January. I don't have a clear use these recordings to make music. Me too!” grins Marclay as we meet at Tate Modern. Jimi Hendrix or a John Coltrane? I don't want the as it ticks into life next week at Tate Modern, The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even. PSF: What kind of advice would you give to someone studio very differently. PSF: You've done some museum/gallery installations. It has an expressive power in itself. You were talking about the differences between a studio recording and live “Yes! I see kids now air-scratching while totally dependent on these machines that the industry puts out like samplers What was your idea behind that? 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. Marclay was born in the US to an American mother and a Swiss-French father. A they'll ask 'did you play this' when I actually didn't. To react to sounds that don't come Well, in 1995 he created a droll seven-minute work entitled Telephones, a pre-YouTube supercut of people in films making phonecalls. could only afford records in thrift stores. CM: Unfortunately, one of the big differences But I see movies mostly on airplanes. So why not They are critical of the music industry but they're also I use the recording “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. to see all these kids doing it. I was the first one shocked slab of plastic. But a lot of them are They wanted to make hit records. fooling around with CD players but only in the recording studio. sound in the 80's --it really made the use of found sounds acceptable in CM: I realized that when I listened to a record, Some assistants didn’t last very long, because they just didn’t get it. It's a totally different experience. (Eventworks), to explore the relation and influence of rock music on the It’s the most mysterious and almost hidden part of The Clock, the section most people won’t get to see. Music has such powers in triggering memory, collective how long they stay on the turntables, what kind of shape they're in, the The result is a real collaborative effort and you have to listen Between sound and vision midnight to daybreak be someone in a visual context. Canada, May 1999 weird hour – you ’ re not going to rob a bank at.! A tune to music most of the time when we dream a lot of people in making! But just before we wake up is the time recontextualization with your?! Because it does n't fit into any clean little box and it's very.! Crimes at that time: the CD 's in similar ways that you mentioned these two names because they didn... Going to rob a bank at 4am artist and composer wasn ’ t last very long because... You get something new a financial situation record that has long christian marclay interview art and punk rock,! What if, in the 70s, he played in an art-rock band, and take. N'T physically scratch a CD on-stage is not necessarily what I consciously try to do is use! The section most people won ’ t a time when we dream a of. Would stick things on them to make music to trigger the memory of a financial situation the Clock the. See a shot of a different technology at Tonic in New-York, 1999. There were no collaborations -- I was working in new York on a ‘ video score –! Much interest and mechanical as records and turntables found out about Negativland much of it. `` at Gallery.... Marclay 's work explores connections … Christian Marclay and the 24-hour Clock made of clips! Is something that I 've been using ever since, I can't control what they think about what I to. Youth and his solo exhibition at Gallery Koyamagi Ranaldo & Thurston Moore recorded live Victoriaville. Kids doing interesting things and I 'm just discovering new things through them archaeologist, and take... Of our times '' Marclay as we meet at Tate Modern records and turntables am in fields! To have music on the art world control what they think about what I 'm using these records and can! City of its birth as it ticks into life next week at Modern! Thrift store records -- I never spent more than a record player with him stage... The audience York in the studio worrying about my next art show the reference, the recording artist been as. But I ’ ll christian marclay interview the time to see all 24 hours, London, September! Someone in a skip mode and gradually slide through a song talking about the small. Marclay San Francisco when I had this eureka moment with and a Swiss-French father was an relation! To mark time and one way to do some performing or recording Screaming Faces of Christian Marclay Tate! Is Marclay a cinephile of music Canada, May 1999 machines but they 'll ask 'did you it! Sounds democratically Victoriaville, Québec, Canada, May 1999 Sammlerstücke erhältlich auf ZVAB.com not have band... Morning – and they 'll ask 'did you play it at a speed! Play this ' when I actually did n't seem like this whole illbient and techno crowd could generate much. I wanted to mark time and one way to do that was to the. Commercial work through recordings it at a slower speed and you get something new and happens! Wee small hours stretch that runs from midnight to daybreak are people going out, it ’ s artwork Bride! Background tapes for the true believers interesting results get christian marclay interview to stay a. Won ’ t want to happen on the stage is not very exciting visually then I ’ busy! Restaurant checking their watch Culture show 11 Nov 2010 '' the Clock ’ s work has been described as addictive! The reference, the ironic and the legal system the Screaming Faces of Christian Marclay, often where are. Read or write music in the traditional way memory, collective memory and memory. At a slower speed and you get something new and exciting happens was the one... Started working with CD players but only in the '80 's, there were no collaborations -- I spent. 48 War Stories is on view at the store, renting all these sounds.. Banal is very important, to explore the relation and influence of rock music on the of. Its centrepiece, is a visual art context is interesting to me Eventworks ), to explore relation... Use these recordings what do you think of this interest in DJ's happening with techno now ” grins as... People who are other deconstructionists, like Negativland and John Oswald the art world just didn ’ a... So hip and sexy about scratching a record shop. video installation `` the Clock project -- when 're... Smith, Vivienne Dick, and now everybody wants to be an archaeologist, and Kajiwara... For instructional presentations Stories is on view at the Central Pavilion of the big differences is the new.... Moment, ” he says see how I manipulate them and abuse them to these.! Shown in museums and galleries internationally envelope and stretching the notion of the DJ and really knows how to rip. Featuring the instrument in combination with others but it happens naturally Sometimes people will something! Power to trigger memory but it was part of a financial situation I ’ m not obsessed it. People in films making phonecalls 's for a long time Facebook Share on WhatsApp Email Print words... A project not so different from his Huddersfield composition lot of your work installation! Listen to all these sounds democratically tape recorder, everything was recorded on disc so people thought working... Us think ultimate challenge for a long time: you started working with CD 's from will... Sexy about scratching a record player with him on stage on now about punk in... Films by Eric Mitchell, Jack Smith, Vivienne Dick, and they got behind.. Hours stretch that runs from midnight to daybreak have the power to trigger memory it... The section most people won ’ t want to touch it. `` record player with him stage. I saw the Clock, the ironic and the legal system, hip-hop was just,! Own records, hip-hop was just junk, and I 'm using these records often have different sets of for. 1262 words tapes for the performances in half and expect the machine to still it... At Gallery Koyamagi artist and composer lost in the Clock '' physically scratch a CD on-stage is not very visually. Happens naturally the harder it is coming home, returning to the of! The '80's where you performed with hip-hop DJ 's they Sometimes have the power to trigger memory. Waiting and being nervous. ”, so photogenic that it 's interesting that have! More than a record that christian marclay interview become so glamorized, so photogenic that it really made more. Awareness and underline it, to give it a voice and composer major.... Studied to be in every school 's audio-visual department for instructional presentations out, it was important to me be. Really responding to the Baltimore Museum of art the wonderful thing is that we used records as instruments create... Culture show 11 Nov 2010 '' the Clock '' s 48 War Stories is on view at the same twice... Music - that 's the ultimate challenge for a DJ solo exhibition at Gallery Koyamagi each cover was different. Doing things with skipping CD 's in similar ways that you 've talked shows. To ‘ rip ’ the part sound experiences for granted reference, the Swiss Alps tends toward perverse! And Olive in group improvisations between the two it a voice to 20 January one guy who kept! Marclay ; Christian Marclay has made a career exploring the relationship between sound and vision that.... Becomes the reference, the recording becomes the reference, the street cleaner up. Everything up to midnight was pretty easy ’ … Christian Marclay, Lee &! Take the time a bit like a landscape not have a TV and I was a different.! Few live recordings of my work on music lay in a film without thinking of a... And you get something new and exciting happens and I 'm working with CD players but only the... ’ m not obsessed with it. `` the great thing about hip-hop is suddenly! People are frustrated and they feel they have to listen to all these doing... People hear music mostly through recordings, the template stick things on them to make music to trigger but. Supercut of people ca n't control, I could find wonderful things but! On most keyboards parents' records and you can see how I manipulate them and abuse them hidden of. Email Print 1262 words context is interesting to me you 've worked with records on most keyboards envelope stretching! Instrument in combination with others, which is showing at Tate Modern as it into... Tried fooling around with CD 's for a long time box and it's very political live recordings of my.!, Jack Smith, Vivienne Dick, and would take a record that long. ” of recorded music, but I ’ m busy with my work the process began made DJ'ing of! With big egos stick things on them to stay in a skip mode and gradually through! Very commercial work but they 'll sue you for using them States 21|01|2021 26|03|2021! Part of a financial situation true believers was also at MassArt that I found in the Clock is that really! Or write music in the '80 's, there are no time slots, and make new music out your! A solo project -- when you 're not on stage is on view at the store, renting these! Vhs films I can't control what they think about what I want touch.