This publication brings together the source material that has informed
Marclay's visual practice over the past few years. It gathers nearly 600
black & white Xeroxes of found image
collages
compiled with the help of graphic designer Laurent
Benner.
“Maybe it's because I'm not a very good draftsman, collage feels like a
more natural approach to sketching and developing ideas. I cut and paste
and use my photocopier as a quick way to experiment and develop ideas. My
work is all about finding, sampling, appropriating images and sounds, and
transforming them. The found image is usually what triggers a thought
process—formulating ideas or simply reaffirming latent thoughts. It's a
way to instantly mediate an image and get a little distance from it.
Accidents are also often revealing. Like the camera, or any video editing
software, the photocopier is just another tool.”
– Christian Marclay
Marclay's compilation of hundreds of high-contrast black-and-white Xeroxes
are like scribblings in a notebook, the first stages of experimentation
towards more finished works, a glimpse into the artist's creative process.
This book brings together the source material that has informed Marclay's
practice over the past few years. It was designed in collaboration with
Laurent Benner, a graphic designer who has worked with Marclay on various
other books and record covers. Their shared sensibility informs this
beautiful new book.
With sampling, shuffling, and montage taking center stage, the practice of Swiss-American artist Christian Marclay (born 1955 in San Rafael, California, lives and works in New York), known as the inventor of "
turntablism," has been anchored in the universe of sound since the end of the 1970s. An eminent conceptual artist and recipient of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his landmark 24-hour video installation
The Clock (2010), he is equally fascinated by all aspects of popular music and avant-garde music, Hollywood cinema, and experimental film. Drawing on the
Fluxus vision of art and Pop spirit, and heir to
John Cage and
Andy Warhol, Marclay has been exploring all the possibilities of the visual arts and the relationships between visual and
sonic phenomena through collage, assemblage, installation, video, photography, painting, and printmaking. Also a performer, he has taken part in numerous musical projects, making the vinyl record and the turntable his favorite instruments.
