Soundtracks for the Present Future
Charley Friedman: Soundtracks for the Present Future
Gregory Allicar Museum of Art
Colorado State University
1400 Remington Street, Fort Collins, CO 80524
January 17, 2024–April 7, 2024
Admission: free
Review by MG Bernard
Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future is currently on view until April 7 at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art in Fort Collins. In the museum’s largest space, the Griffin Foundation Gallery, the artist floats dozens of acoustic guitars, mandolins, and basses, each attached to electrical wires that converge toward a laptop at the center of the room.
The installation invites viewers to move amongst the “constellation” of instruments and embody the sounds and vibrations each one makes as it is automatically plucked by a robotic arm holding a singular guitar pick. [1] The artist intentionally speaks to the audience via multiple senses, i.e. seeing, hearing, and feeling—unlike a painting or photograph, which can only be seen.
An installation view of Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable, at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art in Fort Collins. Image by Wesley Leffingwell.
Friedman’s take on making art is diverse and humorous. Through drawing, performance, photography, sculpture, and video, the artist thinks critically and ironically about contemporary Western culture and its relationship to capitalism and institutionalized religion. [2] His work is deeply rooted in his Jewish identity, upbringing, and lived experiences. Humor allows him to process the absurd and devastating—even apocalyptic—world that we as humans have created for ourselves.
A detail view of a guitar in Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable, at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art. Image by Wesley Leffingwell.
As the artist explains, “Methodologically my work is deeply Talmudic and addresses the full spectrum of the lived experience, whether it is focused on issues that are big or small, with equal importance. I do this without a sense of linearity, returning to themes and works whenever there is a new angle to be explored.” [3]
A detail view of the cords in Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable. Image by DARIA.
The artist’s approach in designing Soundtracks for the Present Future stems from the rituals practiced in Judaism, and a large component of those rituals involve music. The Oxford English Dictionary describes music as an arrangement of sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, or rhythm found universally across all cultures and timelines. [4] Scholars disagree over whether the origins of music developed before, during, or after language. However, they do agree there is a strong correlation between the two. [5] Whatever the relationship, Friedman sees music’s potential to unite humans across the globe.
A view of the computer that programs the instruments in Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable. Image by DARIA.
Using a composition computer software, Friedman pre-programs the instruments to play various songs, sounds, and melodies that loop repeatedly throughout the duration of the exhibition. The artist lyrically connects and intertwines the past with the present by choosing compositions ranging from classical European music to contemporary songs modified for the installation.
Each song is played at random, rather than on a constructed timeline, from oldest music to newest with a beginning and end. As such, Soundtracks for the Present Future is an ode to—and a celebration of—humans’ universal ability to create music. “Music has the power to stimulate a spectrum of emotions and memories, which, in turn, can build human connection and empathy, and, at times, locate common ground.” [6] It is both an activity and embodiment that we can all relate to on some level.
A detail view of a guitar with a robotic arm in Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable. Image by Wesley Leffingwell.
Friedman places the three-dimensional assemblage of basses, guitars, and mandolins throughout the gallery in such a way that allows viewers to feel, hear, and see each instrument both individually and collectively, depending on the person’s physical location. “Together, the instruments highlight the power and harmony of a collective voice, while never deafening the unique character of the lone [guitar, mandolin, or bass],” he states. [7]
A view of Charley Friedman’s installation Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable. Image by Wesley Leffingwell.
Every hanging stringed instrument is unique in that each one strums a distinct set of notes. To achieve this, Friedman constructed and instructed robotic arms to play a pick on the strings above the sound holes (where a human would normally strum). He then places a capo at different frets along each of the necks. The result is a visual and auditory web of singular points that together make a whole composition.
An installation view of Charley Friedman’s Soundtracks for the Present Future, 2024, dimensions variable, at the Gregory Allicar Museum of Art. Image by DARIA.
As audience members move throughout the gallery, certain notes take prominence based on the person’s physical proximity to each strummed instrument. [8] This generates a completely unique personal experience for the viewer/listener based on what sounds are playing at the time and the individual’s own embodiment. As a result, no interaction is repeatable.
Through this installation, the artist makes the audience particularly aware that what makes us human is the exclusively individual ways in which we each move, operate, and embody through, with, and inside the world around us. This experience is what makes us a collective whole. Find your own meaning inside Soundtracks for the Present Future before the exhibition closes on April 7.
Mary Grace Bernard (MG, she/her) is a transmedia and performance artist, educator, advocate, and crip witch. Her practice finds itself at the intersection of performance art, transmedia installation art, art scholarship, art writing, curation, and activism.
[1] Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, “Charley Friedman: Soundtracks for the Present Future,” https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/events/charley-friedman-soundtracks-for-the-present-future/, accessed January 18, 2024.
[2] Western refers to Canada, Europe, the U.K., the U.S., and their historical, cultural origins.
[3] Charley Friedman, “Artist Statement,” https://www.charleyfriedman.com/artist-statement, accessed January 18, 2024.
[4] Oxford English Dictionary, “Music,” https://www.oed.com/dictionary/music_n?tab=factsheet#35555906, accessed January 18, 2024.
[5] Nils Wallin, Björn Merker, and Steven Brown, eds, The Origins of Music (2000, Cambridge: MIT Press).
[6] Charley Friedman, “Soundtracks for the Present Future,” https://www.charleyfriedman.com/sculpture-installation-/soundtracks-for-the-present-future, accessed January 18, 2024.
[7] Ibid.
[8] Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, “Charley Friedman: Soundtracks for the Present Future,” https://artmuseum.colostate.edu/events/charley-friedman-soundtracks-for-the-present-future/, accessed January 18, 2024.
