Mixed media, video and sound
New Installations: 40th Year
October 6, 2017 - July 29, 2018
Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh
“I took to my room and let small things evolve slowly.” – Erik Satie
French composer Erik Satie (1866-1925) coined the phrase “furniture music” in 1917 to describe background music played by live performers. His pieces of furniture music were very short works with an indefinite number of repeats.
Satie developed his minimalist music in radical response to the excesses of 19th-century German Romanticism. His Gymnopédies (1888) are often regarded as a precursor to modern ambient music. Satie’s last residence was a threadbare room that never saw a visitor during the 27 years that he lived there.
In thinking about Satie, I am also reflecting on solitude, memory, imagination, the philosophy of time, mortality, and the nature of cycles.
Four Channel Video
New Installations: 40th Year
October 6, 2017 - July 29, 2018
Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburgh
“In order to play the theme 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.” – Erik Satie
A series of short video pieces exploring the physicality of recorded sound. The audio is derived from altering the playback of 33rpm records by placing objects on the LP and physically interfering with the path of a record player’s tonearm to create “sampled loops.” In playing around with the phonograph as an instrument, I am following a tradition of experimentation by music pioneers like John Cage (prepared pianos) and hip hop DJ Grandmaster Flash (scratching).
This piece contains samples from some of Erik Satie’s best-known solo piano works, including Gymnopédie 1-3, Gnossiennes 1-6, Trois Nocturnesand Vexations.