The Trotsky Suite, an installation. The first of a series of installations built out of my experiences with and manipulations of various texts. As a text in the installation explains: “205 pages of a first edition of Richard Nixon’s autobiography Six Crises were removed and fashioned into paper airplanes, these planes were flown individually and the flight lengths measured in feet. These figures then provided the basis for a variety of editing strategies performed on a 1970 edition of Leon Trotsky’s autobiography, My Life” A recording of the Trotsky book was selectively erased and cut up, using the flight lengths of the Nixon planes as a guide.
The Trotsky Suite, installation entranceThe Trotsky Suite, two books in vitrineThe Trotsky Suite, two books in vitrine, paper airplanes, printed cards on easelThe Trotsky Suite, two books in vitrine, paper airplanes, printed cards on easelThe Trotsky Suite, paper airplane flights measured out in magnetic recording tape and edited out of a recording of Trotsky’s My Life. Edited lengths are pinned to the wall.The Trotsky Suite, cassette recordings of Trotsky’s My Life. individual cassettes in wooden boxes.The Trotsky Suite, cassette recordings of Trotsky’s My Life. individual cassettes in wooden boxes. Playback of cassettes available on a tape player at rear of installation.The Trotsky Suite, printed cards on easel “IN AUGUST 1940 I WAS IN BALTIMORE WHERE I WAS TEACHING FRENCH. ON THE MORNING OF THE 21ST, AS I WAS TAKING A WALK I PASSED A PILE OF NEW YORK TIMES NEWSPAPERS STACKED ON THE SIDEWALK AND HAPPENED TO GLANCE DOWN AT THE HEADLINES THERE IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FRONT PAGE: TROTSKY WOUNDED BY FRIEND IN HOUSE IS BELIEVED DYING. I WANDERED THE STREETS FOR A WHILE, THEN WAITED FOR THENEWS ON THE RADIO a VOICE ANNOUNCED: LEON TROTSKY DIED TODAY IN MEXCO CITY. DARKNESS SET IN”The Trotsky Suite, two books in vitrine
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