Themes
In 1982, the nuclear freeze movement was at the height of its "importance" and its influence is noticsblely seen in tracks from Revolutions Per Minute. Chris Burden's "Atomic Alphabet" is a blatant attempt to capture the fear of nuclear war in auditory form. By using words like "(insert some good examples here)" and "(more examples)", the listener imagines images of desolate landscapes torn apart by war and apocalyptic futures. Even his off-putting method of shouting through his alphabet adds to the listener's sense of danger and fear. Conrad Atkinson's track is merely his pondering a regarding what he sees as an inevitable nuclear war, which will almost certainly be started by the United States. He leaves his listener with the final though that "insert quote about all world wars being fought in England" - forcing one to think about the international consequences of nuclear war as well.
-Conrad Atkinson, The Louis XIV Deterrent
-Chris Burden, The Atomic Alphabet
The Economy
Ronald Reagan entered office with big plans for the economy and tax cuts. His goal was to significantly lower taxes, forcing severe budget cuts in the government, but allowing people to spend more money on goods and services and thus boost the economy. Proposed in February of 1981, the Economic Tax Recovery Act was passed and signed into law that summer. That fall, however, the economy worsened and by 1982 the United States was experiencing its worse economic recession since the Great Depression. Though Reagan's tax cuts had not yet had time to be implemented (and would indeed prove to help the economy in just a few years), the American public quickly associated this new Act with the recession that hit just a few months after it was signed into law. Levine directly addresses these problems in his song, writing that "Inflation, money, and taxes are getting worse all the time" and "The system has failed us a left us." He thus expresses the grievances that many Reagan supporters felt, as they claimed they had been betrayed by their candidate.
-R. Buckminster Fuller, Critical Path
-Les Levine, Would Not Say No to Some Help
Feminism
Many of the artists explore issues related to feminism in their audio recording. Hannah Wilkes, in her song "Stand Up," tells women that "insert good quote here." In both her lithograph and picture on the artist listing, she is unabashedly nude - further emphasizing her argument for the empowerment of women. This is a common theme in many of Wilkes' works. Margaret Harrison uses audio in a different way to explore issues of women's rights. She reads the 'first lines' of books written by female artists from a variety of genres and time periods. By choosing books with lines such as "(something about men don't have to think about gender, but women do)," Harrison discusses the many issues women must face in an effort to gain equality. Ida Applebroog is yet another example of an artist exploring feminist issues in her work. By staging a recording of standard dinner party conversation, she not only makes the listener ponder the shallowness of such conversation, but also how women are only valued for their bodies ("quote about breasts") and not for their intellect, hence the women repeatedly asking "is that a fact?" so as to assert her ability to think critically instead of simply nodding along.
-Ida Applebroog, Really, Is that a Fact?
-Margaret Harrison, First Lines
-Hannah Wilke, Stand Up
Space/Technology
-Piotr Kowalski & William Burroughs, You Only Call the Old Doctor Once
-Douglas Davis, How To Make Love a Sound
-Todd Siler, Think Twice
-Thomas Shannon, Smashing Beauty
Memoir/Memory
Memories are, by definition, intangible but this doesn't stop people from trying to give them a concrete form. These artists are no exception, as they attempt to record memories in an audio format. The company SITE, Sculpture in the Environment, records people's opinions of one of their new buildings. Many of the people recorded would likely have forgotten the building and their opinions of it after a time, but by recording their comments they become memorialized both as a memory and as art. Eleanor Antin creates a strange twist on the capture of memory by recording herself pretending to be the character of Eleanora Antinova, an African American ballerina who performed with the Ballets Russe. Antin created this persona herself and had used it in works prior to this exhibit. Rather than capturing her own memories, Antin creates memories that fit this fictitious character.
-SITE, Comments on SITE
-Jospeh Beuys, Excerpt from Cooper Union Dialogue
-Eleanor Antin, Antinova Remembers
-Helen Mayer Harrison/Newton Harrison, Extract from the Second Lagoon: A Memoriam to John Isaacs
Phonetics/Sound
-Terry Fox, Internal Sound
-David Symth, Typewriter in D
-Jud Fine, Polynesian/Polyhedron
-Edwin Schlossberg, Vibrations/Metaphors
-Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Russian Language Lesson
-Vincenzo Agnetti, Pieces of Sound
