Image: Rodney Graham – Garage MCA, Moscow

Rodney Graham, Phonokinetoscope, 2001, 16mm looped film
Film still © Rodney Graham

Exhibitions
May 18, 2021

Rodney Graham – Garage MCA, Moscow

Garage Museum, Moscow

For Rodney Graham’s first showcase in Russia, Garage will present one of his key works, Phonokinetoscope (2001), which highlights the Canadian artist and musician’s idiosyncratic understanding of the relationship between moving images, sound, and narrative building.

Phonokinetoscope is a complex symbiotic experiment where the traditional synchronization of sound with image and narrative is disrupted not only by the limitations imposed by the specially-built equipment but also by the random intervention of the audience. In the 16mm looped film we see a solitary Graham on a bicycle ride through Tiergarten in Berlin, evoking Albert Hofmann’s historic bike ride home from his laboratory in 1943 after making an interesting scientific discovery.

Loop after loop, the artist takes us on a ride of our own through the carefully choreographed constellation of sonic correlations, poetic congruences, and cinematic and literary associations.

Further reading