“I think that these sentences have been hidden too long in the pages of exhibition catalogs and that perhaps by my singing them for you it will bring them to a much larger public.” That populist sentiment isn’t from Jeffrey Deitch but rather from John Baldessari. In a 1972 video, Baldessari sung Sol LeWitt’s Sentences on Conceptual Art. MOCA is doing an homage-update, Songs on Conceptual Art. Each of LeWitt’s 35 aphorisms has been assigned to a musician or band for an original interpretation. The results can be found on a website that offers free album downloads. A free concert runs 1 to 7 this Saturday at MOCA Grand Avenue.
The tracks I’ve heard, mostly in the trip-hop/ambient mode, are interesting as music. I’d say the project is fun and relevant and not mortifying—falling in the Venn diagram’s intersection of WHAT MOCA SHOULD BE DOING and HIPSTERY THINGS DEITCH WANTS TO DO.
Tags: Jeffrey Deitch, John Baldessari, MOCA
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Absorbing info and well written. Keep up the wonderful stuff!
MOCA didnt’ do a homage Crystal Baxley and Stefan Ransom did a homage and the MOCA allowed them to host their vinyl release in LA at their location…. all of the contributing artists had no idea their hard work and inspiration would be thrown around as if it were pre meditated liver. It’s a beautiful art piece art that a bunch of “hipsters” believed in. And you call yourself informed art blog.