Christian Marclay
Memento (Hearing is Believing), 2008
Cyanotype
51 1/2” x 98 7/8”
Student Union Collection of Contemporary Art, CU2009.3.1

American artist Christian Marclay (b. 1955) explores the union of audio cultures and fine art by transforming music into performances, collages, installations, and photography. As a student at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Marclay was drawn to the Punk Rock movement of the 1970s and spent a lot of time in music clubs. He states that this movement allowed him “to play music without having studied music.” Marclay’s early works include reassembling various vinyl records to become playable sequences of sounds and songs. He also stitched together album covers to create collages representative of the music culture. In the cyanoptype Memento (Hearing is Believing), his punk rock inspiration is evident in the destructive yet composed nature of the image.

© Christian Marclay