Untitled (Small Circle)

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Untitled (Small Circle)

Artist Christian Marclay (American, born 1955)

Date1992

DimensionsOverall: 40 1/2 × 40 5/8 × 3/4 in. (102.9 × 103.2 × 1.9 cm)

MediumPrinted board record covers and thread.

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LineGift of Art Additions Group and Dr. and Mrs. L.A. Levison, by exchange

Object number

2004.86

Not on View

Label Text“Music is generally more democratic than art, so I feel I can touch more people with it, even if I make a piece that doesn’t make any sound, but deal[s] with notions of perception of sound.” Perception of sound is a central theme of much of artist/musician Christian Marclay’s work. The sewn-together vinyl record covers of Untitled (Small Circle), collected from flea markets and thrift stores, seem to create a silent chorus of anonymous mouths surrounding a central mouth-like hole. Marclay teases us with the half-covered faces (can you identify any of them?), but denies us names and album titles. Shaped like a giant record itself, the assemblage explores the relationship between music and the images that evoke music. Nostalgia, the marketing of music, and the way we experience music with our eyes as well as with our ears also play into this deceptively simple work.Exhibition HistoryLos Angeles, Margo Leavin Gallery, Christian Marclay, March 10 - April 17, 1993.

Los Angeles, UCLA Hammer Museum, Christian Marclay, 2003 repr. (col.) p. 22. (Essays by Russell Ferguson, Douglas Kahn, Miwon Kwon, and Alan Licht.)