Song for Sebald , 2017
59.3 x 38.5 in (h x w)
Hand-cut archival inkjet prints, headphones, Plexiglas, MP3 players, plywood and foam Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery Photograph by Steven Probert
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The idea of excision, cutting away, and the haunting beauty of the spaces that remain is an ongoing theme in Jane Benson’s (Thornbury, England, 1973)
work. In Song for Sebald, the artist explores separation and belonging through the writer W.G. Sebald's novel, The Rings of Saturn. Benson transforms the physical text of the novel using a simple knife. By cutting out every part of the text except the syllables of the musical scale - do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti - she uncovers the "potential music" of Sebald's prose: a set of notes hovering inside the novel, divorced from the original text. From that point of excision, Benson finds the novel's “potential music” through a process that links author, artist, composer, and performer. Each of the novel's ten chapters produces a movement created collaboratively by composer Matthew Schickele; in each, the music is guided by the spaces between the excavated syllables Benson has cut, and its emotive lyric is suggested by Sebald's original prose. Benson's multi-stage process creates gaps and absences in order to stitch them together over time and across media, in a process of collaboration that links together nationalities, disciplines, genders, and fields of creative work.

Other works by Jane Benson

A Place for Infinite Tuning II , 2015
49 x 49 in (h x w)
Hand-cut oud and viola, artificial flowers, plywood, mirrored Plexiglas and steel, mirrored Plexiglas, velcro, latex paint Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery
Lehman College Art Gallery
Pencil (Guitar) , 2013
26 x 29.5 in (h x w)
Digital c-print Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery
Lehman College Art Gallery

More from Lehman College Art Gallery

Piano Chair , 2011
45 x 55 in (h x w)
Digital Animation Courtesy of Courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London
Lehman College Art Gallery
A Place for Infinite Tuning II , 2015
49 x 49 in (h x w)
Hand-cut oud and viola, artificial flowers, plywood, mirrored Plexiglas and steel, mirrored Plexiglas, velcro, latex paint Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery
Lehman College Art Gallery
Song for Sebald , 2017
59.3 x 38.5 in (h x w)
Hand-cut archival inkjet prints, headphones, Plexiglas, MP3 players, plywood and foam Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery Photograph by Steven Probert
Lehman College Art Gallery
Pencil (Guitar) , 2013
26 x 29.5 in (h x w)
Digital c-print Courtesy of the artist and Priska Pasquer Gallery
Lehman College Art Gallery
My Song to Sing , 2013
84 x 84 in (h x w)
Ink, Acrylic, paper and fabric collage on wood panel Private Collection Photo Credit: Jason Mandella
Lehman College Art Gallery