Xylophone

Description

Typically sly and understated, Baldessari pokes fun at the arid strategies of that 1970's conceptual art which sought to highlight the gap between objects and their linguistic signifiers. Starting with A, Baldessari holds up a child's picture-card with the drawing of an object; for a full minute he repeatedly intones the object's name, at which point he withdraws the card and progresses to the next letter in the alphabet. The effect is deadening, the repetition turning each word into an absurdist chant as the video moves systematically toward its inevitable conclusion.

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