As curator for Creative Time, an independent New York centre presenting art in public space, Mark Beasley was responsible for Hey Hey Glossolalia (2008), a series of performances revolving around the voice, featuring Mark Leckey, Frances Stark, Rammellzee, Liam Gillick and others. Here, he gives an impression of the multifaceted role of the voice in art and culture over the past one hundred years.
The young artist Adam Pendleton is currently making waves with performances, paintings and installations in which he critically examines our interpretation of history and culture. His work is often describe as ‘conceptual’ or even ‘complicated’, thanks to his frequent use of texts both from his own hand and derived from Afro-American literature, music and pop culture. Is Pendleton ridiculing the clichés about black culture, collecting them like a sociologist, or is he trying to initiate a more subtle way of thinking about language and identity? Time to let him speak for himself.
This first column by graphic designer Paul Elliman is about the voice, in a comparison between a world-famous rapper and an at least equally famous castrato.
