ALISON KNOWLES, Bread and Water, 1992
ca 20 x 14 x 2 cm
woolen glove, paint, ink stamped and PVC plasticised label, rope
signed with initials, dated
This apparently used glove has an industrial plastic coating. The text on the attached label reads: ‘Scratch plastic surface of glove to the ear’. When this is done the hardened paint makes indeed some kind of a rustling noise. Although it is known that Alison Knowles noticed that the cracks in homemade bread had a resemblance to rivers, it is unknown to what extend this woolen glove with ink stamped title refers to bread and water, and so to rivers.
It is not clear whether this object with machine typed text is an edition.
‘Alison Knowles is neither a composer nor a performer in any traditional terms, yet much of her work is obviously some sort of music. When pressed to categorize herself, she told me she conceives most of her works simply as events. Yet even this catchall term does not include her sculpture and prints, or her books and poems. But while she works in many media or intermedia, everything she does comes out of the same basic impulses: a concern for communication between human beings, an appreciation of the aesthetic qualities of ordinary objects, a deep respect for John Cage, and a profound understanding of what “communicating” is really about.’ Tom Johnson in Musical America, 1975.
