steve roden
duet (your magnetic ashes), 2004

susanne vielmetter gallery, los angeles, september 2004
solo exhibition

"duet (your magnetic ashes)" began with the discovery of an old cassette tape of a rehearsal of a punk rock band i was in during high school, recorded in my childhood home circa 1981. a few months after discovering the recording, i also found out that the guitar player whom i hadn't spoken to in over 20 years, had died. after listening to the cassette, i decided to take some of the moments where he was playing by himself and create a work using his guitar sounds source materials. rather than create a work of his voice only, i decided to try to play guitar along with him (i can't really play guitar) - hence the title..."duet". i processed the guitar sounds, kind of erasing their guitarlike presence and transforming them into a kind of after image of guitars, through analog electronics, pitch shift, and frangmentation. they exist as an abstract fragile presence that quietly hovers in the space as a kind of memory. the glass bottles were hand cut and still contain bits of ash from the cutting process. these delicate objects enhance the sound of the small speakers (as resonators) as well as react to the sunlight throwing colored shadows as it seeps in through the window. it is of course, a meditation of life and death, the movement of time, memory, memorial, etc.

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