robleto et al

Dario Robleto: At War With The Entropy Of Nature/Ghosts Don't Always Want To Come Back, 2002.

Cassette: carved bone & bone dust from every bone in the body, trinitite (glass produced during the first atomic test explosion at Trinity test site circa 1945, when heat from blast melted surrounding sand), metal screws, rust, letraset; audio tape: an original composition of military drum marches, weapon fire, and soldiers' voices from battlefields of various wars made from Electronic Voice Phenomena recordings (voices and sounds of the dead or past, detected through magnetic audio tape).

I was just reintroduced to the work of Dario Robleto, and he has recaptured my imagination. His alchemical use of materials (he considers himself to be a sculptural sampler-- like a tactile DJ) is really beautiful, lending even his lists of materials a magical poetry. I love the sacramental respect for the history of objects-- such a deeply human drive, and one that gets a bit blurry in our age of thing-overflow. Here's an interview with him and his gallery page at ACME Los Angeles.