Generation and Continuities
(1979-80)



The five suites of serigraphs shown in the exhibition - Eros, Shakespeare's XXXth, A-Journey, Impressions of Japan and Incidental Music for Yo-Yo Ma were produced by Edition Noël at Harvard in 1979-1980. All of them are based on experiments in the electrostatic distortion and generation of texts and images. To oversimplify: I used the Xerox 3100 duplicating machine at Leverett House, Harvard University, as a creative tool to perform tasks that makers, buyers and users of such machines used to consider (a) a misuse of sophisticated hardware, (b) a costly waste of time, and (c) the sign of a slight aberration on the part of the artist. But Iím happy to say that many of these makers and buyers and users have added these five suites to their collections over the years.

At the opening of the exhibition Yo-Yo Ma himself performed Incidental Music for Yo-Yo Ma, playing a Bach unaccompanied suite, accompanied by the late Ivan Tcherepnin making waves of electronic distortion to match the progressive complexity of the score.