Charles Gaines: Systems & Structures

(slow instrumental music)

(foot steps squeaking)

(piano playing)

(piano keys tapping) (metronome clicking)

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- I don't make paintings,
and I don't make sculptures.

What happens is that the things
that I make involve paint,

and photography, drawing,
and also involve you know,

materials: wood or metal, and so forth.

To propose and develop concepts and ideas

through the materials.

(slow instrumental music)

You can make art with any
number of kinds of materials,

and you don't have to learn how to draw,

and learn how to paint
in order to be an artist.

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I was in a painting program

and I discovered that the whole process

of painting didn't hold
much meaning for me.

There was an overwhelming sense

that the whole thing is arbitrary.

There was a perceived idea
that a work of art was made

from your imagination
and from your intuition.

I do believe that there is
such a thing as intuition

and there is such thing
as as the imagination.

I just think these are concepts

that they're culturally realized.

What we come to understand
is knowledge and meaning

are not pure products of our genius,

but are built into the
structure where we reside.

So, I wanted to make a type
of work whose production

is a consequence of a system,
rather than my imagination.

The first piece I did like this is called,

Walnut Tree Orchard.

I photographed a series of walnut trees

and converted the farm
into numbers on a grid.

That silhouette was then
used to layer the shape

of the trees on top of each other.

(instrumental music)

It also produces evidence
of the differences

between those trees where
the forms don't align,

and the system that I
use allows me to signify

those changes.

In a way, I'm trying to suggest

that the kind of visual
difference that happens

in the system operates the
same way that other concepts

of difference happens in other domains:

politics, gender
difference, race difference,

class difference.

In the drawings, we could
see that those differences

are constructed by the system.

And in the social and political domain,

the differences that we
see are also constructed

by a system.

(inaudible conversation)
(instrumental scales)

(classical music)

- Manifestos is a
project I've been working

on for several years.

I select a political manifesto

and I take that text and I
convert the letters in the text

to musical notes.

And that conversion is a simple
system where the letters A

through G are converted
to the notes A through G.

All the other letters in the text

are then converted to a
silent beat or a rest.

(classical flute plays)

When you string a whole series
of words using the system

then the translated letters
into notes then form a melody.

One of the things I discovered in talking

about these pieces, is
that people didn't believe

that music was created by a random system.

Because I use the diatonic
scale to do the translation

and the scale is designed to be melodic.

(classical music continues)

(audience claps)

This project, it's been 10 years

from its beginning and
was a rollercoaster.

Often, we didn't think
it was gonna happen,

but somehow, finally, we're here.

When I started the project,
the Black Lives Movement,

Ferguson, started hitting the news

and I wanted to explore the core

or the problem that makes
these things persevere.

(classical symphony music)

This particular piece Manifestos Four

we chose the Dred Scott decision,

of the famous Supreme Court
decision for the text.

Dred and Harriet Scott
were born into slavery

and sued for their freedom

and majority of opinion was
that, in order to file a suit,

you have to be a citizen.

And he said, it's impossible
for Dred and Harriet

to become citizens

because they're not white.

Then there's a text that
comes from Fredrick Douglas's

response to the Dred Scott decision.

And so, I took a section of that

and then arranged it for voice.

♪ Loud and exultingly have we been told ♪

♪ That the slavery question
is settled forever ♪

- I think that the whole piece correlates

so well with what's going
on in the present day.

The same problems continue to exist.

The legal system is based
upon a certain logic,

a certain linguistic framing.

(symphony and singing continues)

You see how arbitrary the
law is in relationship

to the lived experience of people

who have to live by those laws.

♪ We cannot change the essential nature ♪

(classical symphony music continues)

♪ The essential nature ♪

♪ He cannot make evil good and good evil ♪

(upbeat modern music)

- I wanted to know what
vegetation life was

in Times Square before the city was built.

We found that one of the common plants

was the sweet gum tree.

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One of the characteristics
of capitalism is that

it excavates, it moves
and takes things away.

The appropriation of Native American land

is a form of excavation,

but Times Square is kind of the
broader trope of capitalism.

So, my thought is that

the upside down tree would
be a gesture to remind us

that this site was produced

as a consequence of
removing what was there.

(mysterious symphony music)

Moving Chains is one of several projects

that makes up this commission.

The dominant subject is
the history of slavery

and the idea of the commodity.

They're doing more before
the big sound test.

They're gonna run some of the chains.

(indistinct conversation)
(upbeat acoustic music)

(chains rattling)

Moving Chains, is a
structure, is a type of barge

and it was intended to be by a river,

a body of water, where commerce occurs.

What you might think of as a roof,

you find 100 foot long lengths of chain.

Chains are designed to
move from the two layers.

Their movement is supposed to make a link

with the river current.

When you walk into the
barge, underneath the chains,

we want that to be an
intimidating experience.

The chains, they're only four feet

above the head of a six foot person.

Since these chains are so big,

we expect that it will
make quite a bit of noise.

(chains loudly rattling)

It's an intentionally theatrical strategy

to make it be an intense emotional space

to give you empathy through
metaphor of the terror

and a horror of a slave ship.

(chains loudly rattle)

The intimidation is important to clarify

the political critique of the work.

That this structure
really was foundational

to the American economy.

(fast-paced symphony music)

As I'm standing here,

I cannot escape the
consequences of that history.

How do we improve the world?

How do we improve life for everybody?

And I don't know if it's possible,

but when the bad things happen,

we should complain about
'em in order to reduce them.

We should not forget how
things are put together.

(fast-paced symphony music continues)