The artist Christian Marclay's ideas and practice, in his own words and those of the foremost writers engaged with his work.Influencing a generation of artists, musicians and theorists, Christian Marclay has explored the interplay between sound, audio cultures and art across a diversity of media: performance, sculpture, photography, collage, musical composition, film, video, and installation. Born in 1955, Marclay first became internationally known in the 1980s for sculptures and reassembled readymades generated from such evocative materials as fragmented vinyl records and album covers. His ambitious multi-screen installations Video Quartet (2002), Crossfire (2007), and The Clock (2010) inspire viewers to contemplate the complexities of time and narrative and the role of sound in experience and representation. Marclay has also collaborated musically with Shelley Hirsch, the Kronos Quartet, Zeena Parkins, Elliott Sharp, Sonic Youth and John Zorn, among many others.
Edited by curator and critic Jean-Pierre Criqui, this volume brings together the artist's statements and conversations with Bice Curiger, Jan Estep, Russell Ferguson, Douglas Kahn, Frances Richard, Philip Sherburne, Michael Snow, and David Toop. Writings on all aspects of Marclay's work follow, by Clement Cheroux, Dennis Cooper, Christoph Cox, Jean-Pierre Criqui, Noam M. Elcott, Russell Ferguson, Douglas Kahn, Rahma Khazam, Wayne Koestenbaum, Rosalind Krauss, Thomas Y. Levin, Tom Morton, Zadie Smith, David Toop, and Rob Young.