Steve Roden
“this is a song from under the floor boards,” 2022
Special edition
Edition of 50, 5 AP
"Collage has long been part of my practice, it allows for an intuitive and tactile approach in combining disparate elements on a single visual plane." – Steve Roden
Vielmetter presents this is a song from under the floor boards, a new, limited edition artist book by Steve Roden. Inspired by a two-part accordion format collage of the same title the editioned replica will be complemented by never-before-seen collages from 2014-2018. Printed by Acuprint and designed by Adrienne Wong, in close collaboration with Sari Roden, Janet Klein and Meg Linton, each limited edition features dynamic foldouts and a unique collage.
Collage has always played a key role in the artist's multidisciplinary approach merging his interests in composition, architecture, design, and time. Roden, a pioneer of “lowercase music,” has played a pivotal role in the Los Angeles experimental sound art community for over 30 years. His sonic work is deeply connected to his visual art across drawing, collage, painting, and sculpture. Creating small run limited editions is part of the artist’s oeuvre and this artist edition of 50 will be launched at ABMB in advance of the survey show to celebrate Roden’s contribution and legacy. Roden was diagnosed with a debilitating disease and at age 58 is no longer able to produce new work.
The collages for “this is a song from under the floor boards” grew out of a project Roden began in 2014 while on a residency at Civitella Ranieri, Umbria, Italy. This is where he began exploring a collection his father owned of 1960s era Domus magazines as “found” source material for these collages as well as video and sound work. The title also refers to a song by the band Magazine “A Song From Under The Floorboards” release in 1980 and is also a further double entendre as the Domus magazines were stored by the artist’s father in a crawlspace under a garage. Roden, who was born in 1964, collapses time and space to have a visual conversation between past and present tense to render something new on a squared single visual plane. As with many of his works, this approach is Roden’s nuanced way of conversing, collaborating, or riffing a duet with his late father through the pages of a vintage design periodical.
Steve Roden received an MFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. Recent solo and two- person exhibitions include, the walls with sand in a single neutral color, Spazioersetti, Udine, Italy; Steve Roden, La Kunsthalle Mulhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Mulhouse, France; Steve Roden and Alexandra Grant: These Carnations Defy Language at the Pasadena Museum of California Art; The Spaces Contained In Each (Installation), St. Cornelius Chapel, Governor’s Island, New York, NY (collaboration with Stephen Vitiello); Jenny Perlin & Steve Roden, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; bells, shells, steps and silences, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA; some small fires, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Center, City University of Hong Kong; a song without words / a music without sound, Le Bon Accueil, Rennes, France; Steve Roden: In Between; A Mid-Career Survey, curated by Howard Fox, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA; and when words become forms, Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, CA. Roden’s work has also been included in exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; Gallery 400 at the University of Illinois, Chicago; The Menil Collection, Houston, TX; the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, UK; the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado; and Sculpture Center, New York, NY among many others. Steve Roden’s work is in several public collections including the Hammer Museum; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; The Palm Springs Museum; The Pomona College Museum of Art; The Arizona State University Art Museum; The Henry Art Gallery; The National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Greece; and the Weatherspoon Art Museum, The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC.
Inventory #ROD904
Courtesy of the artist and Vielmetter Los Angeles
Photo credit: Brica Wilcox