Vinyl Replay has been selected for the Streaming Festival Sixth Edition and will be screened online from 1 to 18 December, 2011. streamingfestival.com/program/2011/mods.php
It was exhibited as part of Photomonth, East London's International Photography Festival from 1-31 October at Rough Trade East.
Vinyl Replay consists of 163 photos taken during 2008-10. In the studio and on location, long photographic exposures, primarily with a hand-held camera, were used as a means of reinterpreting my dusty and scratched record collection. These records range from 1966 when the Beach Boys filtered across my mum's amniotic sac, up until my last days of vinyl collecting from Mole Jazz in the early 1990's.
I want to reinvoke the space and time of this analogue existence: early days of collective family listening; rushing down to Woolworth's with pocket money to buy singles; the flowering of sexual identity in post-punk teens (matters you couldn't really share with your family); and the outrage and civil disobedience against Thatcherite Britain.
Singles and long play records:
J. S. Bach (Hotter), Beethoven (Myra Hess)
Chopin (Barenboim), Maria Callas (Karajan)
Frank Sinatra, Marvin Gaye
Beach Boys, Doors, Faron Young, Bee Gees
Lou Reed, Joy Division, Dead Can Dance
Stevie Wonder, Bhundu Boys
Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five
Miles Davis, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Wheeler
Locations used:
Kensal Green Cemetery, St Matthew's Church Bayswater,
Houses of Parliament, Royal Opera House,
Richmond Park, Hyde Park, Southsea
Southbank Centre, Key Club
Exhibited:
London Independent Photography Group show
St. Matthews Church, London 2008
Westminster Open
SW1 Gallery, London 2008
Many thanks to ECM, HMV Group PLC, Peter Saville Studio and New Order for their support of this project.
Constantine Gras is a multi-media artist who is working on an environmental project for the Cultural Olympiad and made his debut short film, Flood Light, as a commission for the InTRANSIT 2010 festival.