Christian Marclay

Photography has been an integral element of Marclay’s practice since his earliest years as an artist. With an eye keenly (and paradoxically) attuned to sound-related subject matter, his photographs function both as source material for his works in other media as well as sophisticated, subtle works of art on their own terms.

Marclay’s artistic practice is grounded in the area between sight, sound, and all manner of recordings, whether visual or aural. His overall body of work spans sculpture, video, photography, music, performance, and collage.

Christian Marclay’s photograms reinvigorate two nearly-forgotten media: the cassette tapes of the 1970s and ’80s and the cyanotypes of the 1840s. The cyanotype process dates to the dawn of photography and was developed by the English scientist Sir John Herschel. Utilizing a light-sensitive chemical mixture, cyanotypes are created by placing objects directly onto the surface of coated paper. The resulting blue photograms reveal a silhouetted image that varies in shade with the opacity of the objects.