steve roden
mir (we need to say goodbye), 2000
solo exhibition: mir (we need to say goodbye), studio 5 beekman, ny, 2000

the installation consisted of a multi channel sound work and several drawings :

mir (we need to say goodbye) was inspired by four things i happened to stumble upon at the same time:

a newspaper article on the demise of the russian space station 'mir'
the death of robert bresson
the writings of thomas merton
a 1950's kid's book on satellites.

the drawings use these things as structural starting points - and meeting points. all of them are based on photos of mir, as well as early satellites. the text in the drawings comes from the article on mir's demise, the writings of merton, and the dialogue of several bresson films. somehow the demise of mir - this empty vessel that once signified the glory of man's attempted conquests of space - now left to float endlessly in the blackness of space until it disappears, seemed to collide for me with bresson's death - the purity of his films contain a different kind of emptiness (and certainly a floating empty vessel is a clear metaphor for death itself). merton's writings fit into the equation simply because of timing - i was reading his diaries while i came across the mir article and when bresson died. merton's constant searching as well as the attempt at an emptied/full life of a trappist monk - all seemed as well to fit the idea of floating silent emptiness. all 3 orbitting something, be it a planet, a quest, or an idea. the sound piece, composed using only the processed sounds of a microphone flying through the air, reflects the lines i have drawn between all of these things - a kind of intimate, floating, solitude. my interest is not in a clear presentation of the material that influences me, but an attempt to use this information physically, as well as inspirationally, in approaching the making of artworks. their influence is felt in intuitive movements, as well as fragments of their physical presence .

home

bio

exhibition &
performance history

images

discography

interviews

press

contact