Seattle Art Museum: Exhibition Information

The relationship of sound, vision, music, art and performance is the focus of Christian Marclay. The exhibition, an in-depth retrospective of the innovative artist and musician, follows Marclay’s work from 1980 to the present and is on view in SAM’s Gates Gallery on the Second Floor. Organized by the UCLA Hammer Museum, the exhibition comprises over sixty works including Tape Fall (1989), the glass piece Drumsticks (2000), The Beatles (1989), and Recycled Records (1980-1986).

Born in 1955 in California and raised in Geneva, Switzerland, Marclay studied sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston and at Cooper Union in New York. The range of Marclay’s work encompasses musical compositions, sculpture, collage, multimedia installations and photography. As a musician, he was one of the first to use records and turntables as a medium for performance and improvisation. Marclay has also recorded extensively with musicians including the Kronos Quartet, Sonic Youth, Butch Morris, Arto Lindsay, John Zorn and Fred Firth.

“Marclay’s work stretches the definition of sculpture, music and art,” says Lisa Corrin, SAM’s Deputy Director of Art. “We are thrilled to bring his work to Seattle. With the artist’s strong focus on experimental music, the exhibition harmonizes with this region’s history as a laboratory for new musical currents.”

A central part of the exhibition is the critically acclaimed Video Quartet (2002). This large, four-screen DVD projection joins hundreds of old Hollywood film excerpts that feature actors and musicians making sound or playing instruments. The result is both a moving visual collage and a musical composition evoking hip-hop riffs, John Cage, and appropriation art.

Prior to its presentation in Seattle, the exhibit traveled to the Bard College Center for Curatorial Studies, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York (Sept. 28-Dec. 19, 2003). After its presentation at SAM, it will travel to the Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (June 12-Sept. 6, 2004). Accompanying the exhibition is a fully illustrated 200-page catalogue, which will be available in the Museum Store.

Christian Marclay
Untitled, 1991
Color surface print
45 x 45 in.
Collection of the Amerada Hess Corporation, New York, published by Solo Impression

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