view

sound installation
1999
jennjoy gallery, san francisco

1999 original notes:
“view was originally presented as a gallery installation at the jennjoy gallery in san francisco. the piece was part of a larger body of work that included paintings, sewn drawings, a video work. for the installation, i asked the gallery director to record the sound of the view from one of the gallery windows. “sounds were recorded from the ledge just above the radiator on various days and times in april.” sometimes the window was open, sometimes closed. i used the recordings as both a compositional device as well as the sound source for the piece. although i fragmented, looped and processed the original recordings, the composition is entirely made up of the sounds of the view. the four resulting “possible landscapes” were installed with headphones and a chair, so that one could listen to the recording while looking out of the window of the fourth floor gallery. without headphones, the listener would be able to experience the soundscape as it existed, while with headphones one, the sounds of what one was seeing was transformed. a year later, the gallery published a CD document of the piece.”

the image is of the empty gallery, before the exhibition was installed, and the dark fuzzy circle was the location of the recording.