‘sculpture’, 2005-06
steve roden is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. his work includes painting, drawing, sculpture,
film/video, sound installation, and performance. roden’s working process uses various forms of specific
notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self invented systems into
scores; which then influence the process of painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound composition.
these scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions
and left turns. the source material becomes a kind of formal skeleton that the abstract finished works
are built upon.
sculpture, 2005-2006
film/video, sound installation, and performance. roden’s working process uses various forms of specific
notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self invented systems into
scores; which then influence the process of painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound composition.
these scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions
and left turns. the source material becomes a kind of formal skeleton that the abstract finished works
are built upon.
sculpture, 2005-2006
three sculptures were created alongside a series of paintings, drawings, and a film that used a classical
musical score as the starting point. in all of the works, the musical notes were translated into a series of
letters (a-g) and the resulting lists of letters became a score for numerical decisions (a=1, b=2, etc).
in the sculptures, this translated into measurements (all ‘a’ pieces the same length, all ‘b’ pieces the same
length, etc.) as well as color choices.
‘sculpture’, 2005-06
‘beginning and ending with trains on a table’, 2008
beginning and ending with trains on a table, 2008
the sculpture is a translation of an entire 12 page classical music score with a color and size relation for
each note a-g. goethe called architecture ‘frozen music’, and the piece explores musical structure as
architectural form. there are about 3500 pieces of wood.
detail of ‘beginning and ending with trains on a table’, 2008
’25 non standard stoppages’, 200825 non standard stoppages, 2008
this piece is related to marcel duchamp’s standard stoppages, where he dropped a piece of string,
one meter in length onto a piece of wood, creating 3 curved rulers of the same length, but with
different shapes. here I dropped a 25 inch thread on 25 different pieces of wood measuring 1" – 25"
in length, cutting them as the string landed…
different shapes. here I dropped a 25 inch thread on 25 different pieces of wood measuring 1" – 25"
in length, cutting them as the string landed…
’25 non standard stoppages’, 2008
more
steve roden: http://www.inbetweennoise.com
KEEP UP WITH OUR DAILY AND WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS
Nov 27, 2025the works are staged within mangroves, tidal waterways, and open sky, allowing technology and environment to operate as a single system.
Nov 14, 2025designboom speaks with the italian artist about the making of 'Ι don’t like it, Ι love it', the importance of freedom, and why the 'impossible' is often just the beginning.
connections: +570
Oct 18, 2025explore must-see highlights of art basel paris, design miami.paris, and other standout shows and events across the city.
Sep 24, 2025the oak ridge national laboratory was born in 1943 as a top-secret part of the manhattan project.
connections: +2080
