Art Encounter 2: Marclay

 

     Christian Marclay’s Telephones is the first piece I knew I had to write about. It is a seven and a half minute piece that is made of many clips that contain an individual and a telephone. Each separate segment displayed a male or female, many of whom were/are famous actors, talking into the phone. I do not wish to touch on the narrative or the overall idea of the film. I just want to write about some reflections regarding his use of sound.

     The crisp, nostalgia feeling that these telephone ramblers gave me was enough to bring back a little bit of who I used to be, my younger less technologically reliant self. The use of rhythm and meter became obvious as I began to follow the movie. The ringing, clicking, dialing, talking, and scene changing had several rhythms that served the better purpose of the film. It was as if the editing process became a musical composition process. 

     The audible and visible aesthetics that Telephones provides are quite unique in that there is not many films, if any, that cut to as many people at such a fast rate. The emotion and tamber carried in their voices created a spurious array of ideas that filled my head. I thought it was quite intense to see and hear all of these separate scenes. The audio really acted as though a telephone works. We weren’t able to see each line of the phone calls, which begs for the viewer to enter in. The film is made so that I, the viewer, become each person who answers the phone and it causes my imagination to begin reeling who could be on the other line and what might this conversation be about. I love how he focused primarily on the mechanical noises from the phones and the many tones of the human voice. I enjoyed this piece a great deal. It caused me to think almost “too” far out of the box, but I definitely am searching for just that. I love art that seems small and not worth many encounters, but ends up proving to be worthy of more than most people are willing to give.