We buy White Albums

I actually have a friend that is doing this with Whipped Cream and Other Delights. He has (at last count) just over 300 copies...

 

It is interactive folk art. An ongoing ideal in the community. This works on the populist level.
Fun, involving and ultimately intriguing. No harm and will make a great film someday.
Without question John Lennon and Paul McCartney would love it.
Sir Mac will show.

 

I believe I have a 2,700,000 something numbered one. I'll have to check today.

 

I need to hear a pile up of every copy of Helter Skelter he has. NOW!

 

Seeing as how there are four pages I'll state my opinion before reading much farther.

I get it.
John would be over the moon. Every single copy of the white album would become a canvas on which the owner would project himself/herself. Some copies just escaped as damaged in a flood or a fire. All stories told by an album cover that was a reflection of the owner. Numbered copies were made in every country on the planet, so there are potentially millions of stories to interpret.
Whats funny is that the ones who anally preserved the canvas in its blank state also leave a story to the imagination, although its collectors that would drool over that story.
Just wow.

 

I think a John and Yoko thing would be to collect the unnumbered copies. We're all equal (wo/man).

 

So he has $150 invested so far in his project.

 

Stupid, how?
Pretentious, how?
Talentless, how?

This person has taken something from pop culture--in other words, something that is both art and a commodity--and by collecting it, organizing it, examining how owners have interacted with both the cover art (intentionally or unintentionally changing it) and the records themselves, and recording each copy layer upon layer on each other to create a new way of hearing the album, has provoked thought, discussion, feelings, outrage, admiration, and so on among not only the people whose albums he has bought, but also us, here on this forum. This is what art should be able to accomplish, whether you use a paintbrush or an ongoing collaboration with the public.

 

H

Well said!

 

You're a bit harsh. To me it's more goofy, fun and harmless.

Sure this "project" is more dedication than talent, but I wouldn't be as hard as you are towards what is ultimately an act of extreme fandom rather than an art statement.

 

I checked my numbered copies;

2,303,370 USA
2,936,918 USA
330,430 Japan

 

I would love to see this.

I guess that makes it good art, doesn't it?

 

A wonderful and interesting concept for an art piece. It obviously wouldn't be as interesting with a different album and album cover. Wish I'd thought of it.

(Maybe this thread should be in Visual Arts where there's no visual arts.)

 

Well, it is an art statement accordingly to the guy's own words - " I’m making an art piece using White Albums as material".
I have nothing against such harmless goofing and would probably find it mildly amusing if he did not use big words for small ideas.
Serge Gainsbourg and Melody Nelson - now, that's what gives the word art its true meaning.

 

This is just the coolest.

Q: Are you a vinyl collector?
A: Yes, I collect White Albums.

Staff picks behind the counter.

 

I posted this article on twitter, my friend replied he's going to do the same thing with Orleans' "Waking and Dreaming."

 

My friend and I were going to do something similar with Boz Scaggs records, because every record show we went to, we would see at least 30. Nice that someone made our idea into a reality, not the same album of course, but the same principle.

 

I love this. My copies are numbered 2270574 (technically my sisters) and A2870976 (my personal copy). My copy has yellowed transparent tape all around both halves of the jacket in an attempt to keep it together. It's turned into a fine piece of art. The photo's are in pristine shape in both LP's.

 

This guy is my new hero.

 

The 100 monos together is the only way to listen to this album.
He spent weeks meticulously mixing them together, whereas the mixing of 100 Stereos was a mere after thought and he wasn't even there for it.

 

How wonderfully simple.

 

I think this is great, and I couldn't care less about the Beatles.

 

Well, I guess we know if someone says the White Album is rare we know they are full of crap.

 

It's helpful but maybe not imperative to have a little art history understanding when looking at this work. I immediately thought of the Russian Suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich (1878 - 1935). This painting from 1918 is called Suprematist Composition: White on White. Some have argued that without Malevich the white on white concept for the Beatles cover would not have been conceived.

See http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=80385

 

Thanks for sharing this. I hope I have the time to visit this exhibit before it ends. What I really like most is how, through a mass-produced piece of popular music, the uniqueness of the records is entirely due to what the previous owners did (or didn't) do to the covers (which seem to beg to be drawn upon). IMO this is what good art should do - provoke thought. Lots of people didn't agree with Marcel Duchamp when he mounted a bicycle wheel on a stool and called that art, but Duchamp saw art as a way to elicit a response from people - engage in a dialog. And this new White Album exhibit was certainly the product of thought, research and imagination. That's valid enough for me.
------------ Chris