September 2 – October 28, 2000

TELEPHONES
Christian Marclay


Christian Marclay, still from
Telephones, 1995

New York artist Christian Marclay utilized Hollywood film archives to create this surprisingly cohesive and independent, 7-minute video narrative. An archetype of the human encounter with the telephone is woven from a diverse field of familiar images. A phone rings and is approached with anxious expectation, fear, boredom, desire or anger. The players are strangers, or known to us as Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland and others. This visual experience is augmented by Marclay’s sound editing which creates a brilliant collage of the telephone’s mechanics, the human voice and the deafening silences of the soul. This piece was included in the Venice Biennale of 1999.
Organized with assistance from Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Curator: Karen Love. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.