Rodney Graham

Rodney Graham died three years ago today, at the age of 73. 

Rodney Graham

The above setlist was hastily scrawled on the back of the photocopied promotional flyers for a 2004 concert that I helped to present. I don’t believe Graham designed it himself, it was likely a colleague of mine at Art Metropole (Jordan Sonenberg?). 

Graham performed music throughout his career, despite stage fright that often led to him vomiting just prior to performance. 

Graham died on this day, two years ago, at the age of 73. 

Rodney Graham | Champagne Glasses

Rodney Graham 

Champagne Glasses 

Chicago, USA: The Renaissance Society, 1997 

Set of two glasses

Edition of 100 

"A Champagne Flute is the perfect vehicle for an artist obsessed with corrupting civilization according to its own rules. Vancouver-based conceptual artist Rodney Graham has been keenly corrupting great works of literature, art and music based on their internal logic. For The Renaissance Society, Graham has converted the Robinson Crusoe-esque character from his stunnuing Venice Bienale film installation into a delightful tipsy monogram poetically described as forever never level.” 

Rodney Graham

I've been thinking a lot about Rodney Graham since his death last month, so I fished out this cover story on his music that I wrote for C Magazine, many years ago. I was going to post the text, but it's behind a paywall, so instead here are some obituaries:

The New York Times

The Guardian

Artnews

Hyperallergic

The CBC

and a picture from the last time I saw him, performing live at the Great Hall in Toronto: 

Rodney Graham | A Little Thought

[Rodney Graham]

A Little Thought

Toronto, Canada/Los Angeles, USA/Vancouver, Canada: AGO/MoCA/Vancouver Art Gallery, 2004

208 pp., 25.5 x 30.5 x 2.75 cm., hardcover

Edition size unknown

A Little Thought is the first North American museum retrospective and accompanying catalogue from one of Canada's most celebrated artists. Art Gallery of Ontario curator Jessica Bradley provides the introduction, Cornelia Butler examines Graham's relationship to the Canadian landscape and identity, Lynne Cooke looks at the construction of the artist's persona in works such as City Self/ Country Self (2001), and Shep Steiner discusses the joke as a conceptual strategy for Graham. 

The latter is key to appreciating Graham's practice. My favorite work of his (and - almost - of anyone's) is Verwandlungsmusik, a work which the artist has brilliantly dismissed as trivial and a "musical joke", before adding that the piece "redeems itself only because it is a joke of cosmic proportions". 

The above copy of the book was signed for me by Graham, hurriedly arranged by curator Jessica Bradley moments prior to the opening reception at the AGO. I had helped her put on a performance by Graham at the Gladstone Hotel a day or two prior (see flyer, below). Not sure if the misspelling of my name was deliberate or not. 

Graham loved playing music but was also stricken with stage fright, often vomiting before taking the stage. In addition to the Gladstone show, I had seen him play in Berlin (alongside Martin Creed) and again in Toronto many years later (an event put on by collector Paul Marks, the doctor for the Toronto Raptors). I wish I enjoyed the performances more, but I never felt the music ever really rose above a bar generic band with witty lyrics. 

I like the song that accompanies Graham's acid bike ride film Phonokinetoscope, and of course Verwandlungsmusik is a musical work. I don't listen to it often, but I think about it all the time. It reminds me of something Ben Vautier told me during a phone interview, about John Cage: "Reading Cage is very boring, listening to John Cage is boring, but thinking about John Cage is extremely funny". 

Graham died on Saturday, at the age of 73. 

Rodney Graham

Rodney Graham died Saturday at the age of 73. 

Rodney Graham | Send Your Child To Art School

On this day in 2015, Plug In ICA in Winnipeg launched the Rodney Graham: Send Your Child to Art School poster project. This poster series reformulates an earlier work by Graham, taking his message street-level to provoke conversations about the priorities of our educational institutions. This commissioned posters were distributed throughout Winnipeg. 

They are still available from the great Plug In store, in a range of colours, for $20.00 CDN, here: 

https://shop.plugin.org/products/rodney-graham-send-your-child-to-art-school

"You may have seen the colourful "Send Your Child To Art School" posters around the city. It is an artwork by Canadian artist Rodney Graham, that Plug In commissioned. Even though it is a simple statement, it reflects a more general belief in the benefits of the arts, challenging common dismissals of artists and the arts as being non-productive contributors to society.

Winnipeg is a place that is full of people and institutions that already understand and promote this belief and this is why I was drawn to this city."

- Jenifer Papararo, director of artistic programs at Plug In 

Rodney Graham

[Rodney Graham]

Rodney Graham

Vancouver, Canada: Rennie Collection, 2016

160 pp., 8.5 x 1 x 10.75", hardcover

Edition size unknown

Published on the occasion of the exhibition from the Rennie Collection at Wing Sang, Vancouver, British Columbia Canada May 31-October 4, 2011, this title also includes seven-inch vinyl record featuring a collaboration with Kim Gordon. 

Graham turns 73 today.