Black and white photo of an old-fashioned black telephone with rotary dial.

Telephones

Christian Marclay

  • Year 1995
  • Edition Edition of 250, not numbered
  • Material/Technique Single-channel video (color, sound)
  • Dimensions 4:3 Monitor on base
  • Length 7' 30''
  • Category Media Art
  • Collection Sammlung Goetz, Medienkunst, München

Christian Marclay’s film collage consists of a sequence of excerpts from nearly 130 Hollywood films, in which actors are speaking on the telephone. Sequences, in which the characters are dialing phones, are followed by scenes in which phones are ringing, followed by scenes in which the receivers are being picked up, and so on. A dramaturgy is thus created in which the protagonists are brought into conversation with each other. 
In the 1970s, Marclay began to manipulate records so that the sounds could be placed in a new context. The artist is considered one of the inventors of turntablism, a technique that later was further developed by rap and hip-hop artists. Marclay’s later work The Clock, which was awarded the Golden Lion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, is also based on the creation of common patterns from sounds and images.

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