|
|
|
|
|
|
"Untitled (speakers)" is a stacking of two custom-made speakers my grandfather made and gave to me as a high-school graduation gift. Every one minute and 44 seconds Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" plays in its entirety from the speakers. The piece is loaded, referencing a handful of issues, among them a subtle jabbing not at minimalism or late modernism, but at the contemporary rush to further deconstruct these movements. These specific objects are tarnished from neglect and other personal encounters. Their stains, burns, and rips implicate a variety of possible destructive forces and invite, then, a blatantly romantic reading of the work in opposition to a formal one. Viewers are further distracted from any aesthetic deconstruction by Orbison, a hallmark of sentimentality and tragedy whose "Only the Lonely" calls into play an attempt to connect with the clichéd, though painfully real sensations of love and loss. I further dramatize the relationship between an artist and his work by attempting to exploit and sell a gift. Coupling this with the celebration of Orbison's pathos, "Untitled (speakers)" simply asks its audience to think of gifts, of family, and of love, and to resist the distraction of aesthetics, or the annoyance of deconstruction. Joshua Smith |