Steve Roden - View (2025)

from steve

View was first presented as part of a solo exhibition at the jennjoy gallery in san francisco.

the show also included paintings, drawings, and a silent video work.

for the installation, i asked jenn to record for me the sounds of the View from one of the gallery windows. "sounds were recorded from ledge just above radiator on various days and times in april" sometimes the window was open, sometimes closed. i used fragments of these recordings as both a compositional cue as well as the entire source materials for the soundwork.

although they had been fragmented, looped, and processed - the compositions were still entirely made up of the View. a series of four different 'landscapes' were presented on headphones with a chair facing out the window that the recordings had come from.

the Viewer could see the landscape that produced the sounds; but with the headphones on, these sounds were completely transformed. a cd document was published by the gallery.