"XF Format Part 4: JB (canonic)"

Review by Tom Hopkin

For its inaugural exhibition Drop City presents the fourth part in a series of works by Ralf Brög. ‘xf part 4: JB (canonic)’ (2014) distils Brög’s practice to an architectural intervention, appropriated audio and spatial qualities, explored both physically and aurally. The concern for multi-platform and cross-media approaches in the communication of art is of paramount importance to Brög, and the audio in this work is an appropriate and canonical locus point.

The “JB” of the title refers to John Baldessari and within the space we hear his dislocated voice singing Sol LeWitt’s ‘35 Sentences on Contemporary Art’ (1969). Baldessari’s rendition of LeWitt’s theory is sung with deadpan formality to the tunes of popular and familiar songs. Consequentially, Baldessari playfully distorts the already hazy boundary between practice and theory in conceptual art, and the relations between text, audio, video and object. In this presentation of the audio from ‘Baldessari sings LeWitt’ (1972), Brög continues this process of redistribution with the phrases’ original didactic qualities being di!used into a dialogic being. (...)

Read more: PressRelease XF4 DropCity PDF