schindler house

sound installation
2001
mak center art & architecture
los angeles

schindler house was part of the exhibition “in between outdoors” at the mak center for art and architecture / schindler house, los angeles ca in 2001. it was one of two exhibitions that coincided with moca’s exhibition of the architecture of r.m. schindler, and in both cases at the mak, artists were invited to create interventions and/or site specific work at schindler’s king’s road house.

my installation for the 1922 home/studio of the architect consisted of three soundscapes, all created using recordings i had made during a 24 hour period spent in the house, and its immediate landscape. these initial recordings were  transformed electronically to create abstract soundscapes as a kind of reflection of the house and its history.

along with the source recordings, i performed and recorded a version of john cage’s 4’33” using the house as my instrument (it was my first performance of the work). cage lived in the house for several months, and thus that history seemed certainly something to acknowledge, and that recording was used as a “secret track” on the eventual cd document.

within the grounds of the house, i created three site specific installations – a multi-speaker work for the front pathway to the south entrance, another multi-speaker composition along the base of a small grove of bamboo at the rear of the back yard (which offers my favorite view of the house); and a headphone work inside the main hallway, facing the windows that look out on the central courtyard.

after the exhibition was completed, i wrote a lengthy text related to my own history with schindler’s work (my father lived in a schindler house for several years when i was a teenager), as well as a document/catalog that contained the text and a CD. (the documentation was funded by a durfee ARC grant.)

the images:
1 & 2. recording the house
3 & 4. back yard installation
5. interior with headphones
6. view from bamboo installation
7. midnight performance of 4’33”.