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Presented as an installation with a total running time of seven minutes, the film Concert C with Door was originally a six-month performance in which artist David Askevold tried to investigate the correlations and interactions of sounds and space. Alongside the audio recording Concert Tone Compressions, he created a piece of conceptual art in the form of a performative installation that relied on a specific technical set-up.
Askevold installed a tuning fork at a door that would close and open in regular intervals. With every other closing and opening of the door, the fork would be activated to produce a sound which would last for the interval of the next two closings and openings. With approximately four closings and openings a day, the total amount of door movements during the half-year period would add up to around 700. For what was later called an architectural music performance, two microphones were installed: one at the top of the door to record the tone of the tuning fork and the instructions David Askevold gave his cameraman during the period of time. A second microphone would be installed at the bottom of the door to record the opening and closing sounds.
David Askevold, born in 1940 in Conrad, Canada, was an experimental artist whose conceptual art was often recorded on videotape. He taught at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CalArts in Valencia, and the University of California. His work was exhibited in the group show Reconsidering the Art Object 1965–1975 at MOCA (1995) and at the 1977 Documenta exhibition in Kassel among other venues. David Askevold died in 2008 in Halifax
Courtesy: The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Contact: www.moma.org
Format: 16 mm, Colour
Running time: 7 min
Language: Without dialogue
