in 2002 i made my first few “true” system paintings, one of which was based on the score for john cage’s 4’33”. for that work, i used a paragraph of text that was both describing the first performance as well as being the score for the performance to generate a series of lines – each one related to a letter of the text. at the time, i did not realize there were several different iterations of the score.
towards the end of 2010, i decided that i would perform cage’s 4’33” everyday for the year of 2011, generating both a disciplined listening experience every day, as well as writing – the eventually finished piece being a 400+ page text work entitled “365 X 433″. the idea was also to explore the score and its permutations, as well as how being confronted by it everyday might open it up.
in the fall of 2011, while still immersed in the performances, i decided to revisit my earlier painting of 4’33” by working not only from the score i’d used originally, but working from the other versions to generate several large scale paintings and some sculpture.