• ragpicking (berlin), 2012

    in 2011, the DAAD made it possible for me to spend a month researching walter benjamin’s archive at the akademie der kunste. i had seen some of benjamin’s notebooks and notes in an exhibition in 2006 at the akademie der kunste, and was struck by a number of interesting visual elements – and in particular a series of color coded symbols that resembled some of the graphic notations used by avant garde composer during the 1960’s. because i cannot speak german, i had no choice but to focus on the visual qualities of benjamin’s hand work. as i began my research, six years later, my focus continued on various visual aspects of benjamin’s notations – in some cases exploring a long series of colored “ticks”, as well as his overall use of symbols within the manuscripts. i also started to look at a number of visual idiosyncrasies, such as the different ways benjamin obliterated words graphically – through actions towards the silencing of words, as well as his visual ways of connecting different texts on a page.

    ragpicking was an exhibition curated by carsten seiffarth. the exhibition consisted of an 8 channel sound piece – ragpicking, a series of ink and color pencil works on paper, part of my diary of a year long project of performing john cage’s 4’33” everyday for a year, and four video works. all of this work was an exploration and conversation with my notes from working with benjamin’s archives.

  • symbol/cymbal

    sound installation
    8 channels
    sound source: a single cymbal
    20 minutes, looped