CatharineClarkGallery

Songs of the Islands was made in New York City in 1996 when Katchadourian noticed the quantity of discarded, loose audio cassette tape tangled in gutters, subway grills and traffic islands, and decided to start collecting it. The collection took several months and yielded tape fragments with all sorts of music, including rap, Vietnamese pop music, heavy metal, reggae, traditional Indian music and salsa. There were also non-musical discoveries, such as an episode of "All in the Family" recorded ambiently in a room with a bird chirping, and outtakes from a radio journalist's interview with a psychic. In their stylistic variety and linguistic diversity, these soundtracks describe the astounding mix of people living in New York.

Endurance is a 10-minute excerpt from an archival film of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole on the ship Endurance, projected onto Katchadourian's front tooth. While the film plays, the artist tries to smile without losing composure. This piece is exhibited as a large projection such that the image is at least eight feet wide (when shown at this scale, the film playing on the tooth is legible). Katchadourian's increasingly distressed breathing and the sound of her slurping mouth constitute the soundtrack.

Endurance is a 10-minute excerpt from an archival film of Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1914 expedition to the South Pole on the ship Endurance, projected onto Katchadourian's front tooth. While the film plays, the artist tries to smile without losing composure. This piece is exhibited as a large projection such that the image is at least eight feet wide (when shown at this scale, the film playing on the tooth is legible). Katchadourian's increasingly distressed breathing and the sound of her slurping mouth constitute the soundtrack.