Allan Sekula
Gallery Voice Montage, 1970
Audio-installation
2 canvases on stretchers, unprimed,
120 x 120 cm each
Sound, 9 min 17 sec (loop)
Total dimensions of the installation variable
Reconstruction of the canvases: Allan Sekula and
Generali Foundation 2003
African-American elementary school children
and teacher:
Teacher
Do you see you’re not supposed to touch?
Students
[inaudible]
Oh, my goodness.
Will you look at this one?
She got her little green bikini.
[laughter]
Where?
This is a giant cuff link.
Where?
Giant cuff link.
Where?
Right here. This thing right here.
Can’t you see this on the picture?
It says Picasso Cuff Link.
It looks like cuff link.
Here it is: “Giant Cuff Link Using Picasso’s Head.”
Picasso’s Head. Right here.
[laughter]
A piece of a car that has been torn up. They just put it
together and shaped it all kinds of ways. And this right here
looks part of like the engine. And… well… right here
looks part of like the fender. It looks like all part of different
part of a car.
[laughter]
This looks like…
Quit moving that ball.
… a triangle of big different color balls. Big different
colored balls. They don’t have numbers but they do,
actually, are formed into a pool thing, a pool set.
[laughter]
Shut up!
Middle-class, middle-aged woman
Why do you always have to get a meaning to everything
for? We all were just laughing about it. We all just thought we
had to get something out of it.
Young man
Yeah. Sometimes you come in here and you’d rather look
at the ocean than you would at the pictures.
Docent #1
You can take any one of these works, put it anywhere. It
would be different in meaning. It would be changed. That
one was designed for the dimensions of the room. It
would be changed immediately.
Woman visitor
Yes it would.
Young woman
He just removed portions of the canvas?
Young man
Nah, I don’t know how he did it. It looks like it was
almost silk screened on. He probably had some far out
technique you don’t know about. Secret technique.
They’re stuck with it forever.
Young woman
It wasn’t painted on. It’s all dripping. He did it while it
was up. Upright.
Young man
One far out thing is he’s just removed the whole canvas.
It’s really two-dimensional. Right on the old damn wall.
And yet it looks like it’s hanging. It really looks like it’s
plastic. Sheets of black polystyrene, or polyethylene.
Shiny black polyethylene. In fact that’s what I thought
it was at first.
Young woman
Wow it does, or like oil.
Young man
Yeah, black, it’s black. It could have been very wet,
you know, very wet.
Male visitor
That sold for one million dollars.
Another male visitor
You know, I don’t mind people doing their own thing.
To mess with my…
Young girl
It looks like a hat.
Woman
They shellac it.
Young girl
I think this is pretty.
Second young girl
I like that.
Young girl
Yeah, I may make one.
Second young girl
Oh yeah, sure! Beautiful.
Woman
You think you could do this? You don’t think your colors
would overlap?
Young boy
This is a painting? Goodness!
Second young boy
They overlap a little, look.
Young boy
No they don’t.
Second young boy
Uh huh, look. Purple and you can see the olive under.
Young boy
Don’t touch it, Andy. Don’t touch.
Docent #2
Where the shirt comes up becomes a matter of great
concern. Do you find yourself looking at that little part?
Well now that I’m mentioning it, start looking at it. It’s
very very interesting to keep looking to see if you are
going to see something else you didn’t see. What are we
looking for? What are we looking for when we see
things? What are we looking for here? What happened to
her? Do we care? Do we know? What about feet in that
gesture? What about shadows? What about him? What
about posture? All of that is possible in this, it’s all there….
Now enjoy it.
And also, the image, doesn’t even stay nice and neat,
you know, we had it fairly ordered, but then it gets slightly
hysterical, as if, it feels slightly hysterical… the control,
even of the units of repetition… it’s sort of diminishing.
Woman visitor
You can’t scan it like you were your own projector,
because, you know, there’s interruption there, you go
back to back… it’s hard.
Docent #2
That’s right.
Second woman visitor
A motion picture.
Woman visitor
That’s what I was saying, it’s interrupting me because of
these blocks.
Docent #2
And the policeman’s head, you know, the little things.
Like this image, this head, sort of coming right into bits.
Arbitrary, but not invisible. Not “not there.” All doing its
little rotten thing.
Second young man
It doesn’t sort of bother me, because I think, you know, it
hits you with the fact that, wow, you know that would be
so easy to do, and I think the whole point of that is to
say, wow, you know, I think it’s putting something over
on people.
Second young woman
It’s simple, and it looks like something we did in art class.
We were learning to draw [laughs]. It’s basic. I mean
that’s what…
Second young man
The predominant shape is phallic. I think his whole thing
is just a big masculinity thing, where he’s putting phallic
symbols on paper and putting them in the art museums
and having people look at them and say, you know, wow,
this is a simple line drawing, and it’s very basic, and you
know, it’s very simple to do, and he’s sitting here hitting
you in the face with these phallic symbols. And nobody
realizes it. Or very few people realize it.
Second middle-class, middle-aged woman
I don’t know that he’s banging on anything. If people like
it that’s a matter of personal opinion. Though I don’t feel
that… he’s really expressing anything that he has within
himself. That may be his way of doing it. I don’t know. It
wouldn’t be mine. That’s what makes the world go
round.
Elderly woman
It could be used, you know, for wallpaper design or any
kinds of things you might want to use them for. Though
I’d love to have one of those, you know, that whole
thing…. So colorful, isn’t it?
Man with patrician accent
I think this is a hype. I don’t, I don’t enjoy being laughed
at by artists.
Middle-aged man
I think he’s a very creative, very involved man. This is a man of large
talent. He exploits the media that he’s involved with enormously.
Woman
That’s art?
Man
Let’s go look at the landscapes.
Another man
I think they are just letting these artists come here and
play their games on the wall. It’s like little kids, you know.
Another woman
What they’re turning out, it’s not as good.
Another man
Yeah, like little spoiled babies. I could do that.
Man with Texas accent
It costs a hundred dollars though. That’s a lot of money,
you know. A hundred dollars. “Serigraph.” It’s only four
dollars you can rent it. But it’s a hundred dollars. I could
do one of them. Look, all you do is…
Woman with Texas accent
That’s mighty weird. It’s a photograph, isn’t it?
Man with Texas accent
Yeah, anybody can copy a photograph.
Woman with Texas accent
Bunch of colors…
Man with Texas accent
This here thing has holes in it. Yeah, is this art? I don’t
know.
A third young man
What does this guy think he’s doing, putting two blank
canvases in an art gallery?
Gallery Voice Montage, 1970
Audiotape edited from recordings made at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art, the La Jolla Museum
of Contemporary Art, and the first Andy Warhol retrospective
at the Pasadena Art Museum, spring 1970.
GF0030025.00.0-2003
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