New York–based turntablist/visual artist
Christian Marclay
will perform two concerts in August as part of his Walker Art Center artist residency. On Saturday, August 21, at 9 pm, the Walker and Triple Rock Social Club present
Two Turntables and A Saxophone: Christian Marclay, Andrew Broder, and George Cartwright in Concert
, an evening of avant-turntablism and improvisation that blends and jars the worlds of rock, hip-hop, and jazz. Marclay concludes this year’s Summer Music & Movies in Loring Park series on Monday, August 23, at 7 pm, with his free improvisation collective
djTRIO
featuring
DJ Olive
and
Toshio Kajiwara
. Marclay’s exhibition Shake Rattle and Roll is on view at Franklin Art Works through August 14.
Marclay, who founded the rotating djTRIO project in 1997 to showcase the talent of avant-garde truntablists in the context of group improvisation, says “djTRIO is not a band but an idea. If the DJ is to be considered a musician, then he or she should be able to play in a group like any other musician. djTRIO emphasizes the group over the individual, to contrast with the notion of the DJ as a soloist.” Other djTRIO members have included Marina Rosenfeld (last at the Walker with Lee Ranaldo’s Text of Light project), Erik M, Pita, Otomo Yoshihide, and Tom Recchion.
Since the late 1970s, performance has been a central tenet in Marclay’s practice. Following his immerseion in New York’s punk and new wave club scene, he began to play turntables in a Duchampian punk band called The Bachelors, Even, and to organize experimental music events exploring the relationship between music and performance art. Since then he has developed a vast repertory of performance and improvisation skills, mixing and literally cutting records in order to open up the possibilities generated by overlapping intrinsic and latent sounds with the music inscribed on the surface of the records. He has been called “the godfather of postmodern DJs” for a performative practice that involves multiple turntables and sampling from a wide variety of sources such as pop music, polkas, Christmas tunes, and other sounds. Quoting and referencing songs, noises, sound bites, and snippets from popular culture and mass media, Marclay’s aural collages operate on multiple sensory and conceptual levels. Each juxtaposition within his hybrid soundscapes generates a confrontation between the particular historical and cultural associations of individual sounds, the cumulative effect of which is a glimpse of the complex, embedded nature of sound in the world.
djTRIO’s s selected performances include the following: The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Virgina); The Whitney Museum of American Art at Philip Morris; Fri-Art Kunsthalle (Switzerland); Tonic (New York); Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris); Biennial de Maia (Porutgal); The Andy Warhol Museum (Pittsburgh); The Hirshhorn Museum (Washington D.C.); and The UCLA Hammer Museurm (Los Angeles).
Marclay has performed and recorded with collaborators as diverse as John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Fred Frith, Zeena Parkins, Shelley Hirsh, Christian Wolff, Butch Morris, Arto Lindsay, and Sonic Youth among many others. He’s variously recombined fragments of broken records, released an LP without a protective sleeve, and DJ’d with 12 turntables at the same time—all moves that capitalize on the effects of the happy accident.
Marclay’s visual art practice, which combines video installations, sculpture, photography, and collage, addresses the overlapping of aural and visual realms, reflecting on how sound and image are related. The exhibition _
Shake Rattle and Roll
_features a 16-monitor installation exploring the sonic possibilities of works in the Walker’s extensive Fluxus collection. His playful investigation creates a clamorous symphony of images, a portfolio of sounds.
Christian Marclay (b. 1955, San Rafael, California) grew up in Geneva, Switzerland, where he studied at the Ecole Supérieure d’Art Visuel. In 1977, he moved to Boston and attended the Massachusetts College of Art, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Marclay’s work has been shown at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C; the Venice Biennial; the Musée d’Art et d’histoire, Geneva; the Kunsthaus in Zurich; and the Whitney Museum of American Art at Phillip Morris in New York. His retrospective exhibition organized by the UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, is currently on an international tour.
Artist-In-Residence Christian Marclay
Two Turntables and A Saxophone:
Christian Marclay, Andrew Broder, and George Cartwright in Concert
Saturday, August 21, 9 pm, $8 ($4 Walker members)
Must be age 21+
Triple Rock Social Club
629 Cedar Avenue, West Bank, Minneapolis
Tickets: At the door; Online at triplerocksocialclub.com; or 612.333.7399
During an evening of avant-turntablism and improvisation that blends and jars the worlds of rock, hip-hop, and jazz, Christian Marclay joins local phenoms Andrew Broder (Fog, Hymie’s Basement) and George Cartwright (Curlew, Gloryland PonyCat) in what is sure to be one of the most talked-about gigs of the summer. Openers Cepia (laptop projection synthesis) and the one-man electro-drench of Dosh fill the bill. Copresented with Triple Rock Social Club.
Summer Music and Movies: Six the Hard Way
Music: djTRIO (Christian Marclay/DJ Olive/Toshio Kajiwara)
Monday, August 23, 7pm, Loring Park
In case of rain, this event will be moved to the Woman’s Club of Minneapolis.
For this rare free performance Marclay’s forward-thinking trio takes turntablism beyond scratch beats into a haunting found-sound experiment rooted in the context of free-improvisation. djTRIO, which features the deejay as an instrumentalist working collectively in a group, has performed at festivals and museums around the world. The concert will be followed by a screening of the Steve McQueen classic, The Magnificent Seven.
