Duration: 120 min
Edition: n/a
Archival: DVD
Exhibition copy: mp4 digital file
Signed Certificate of Authenticity
Provenance: Margo Levin Gallery

Part of the Blake Byrne Video Collection Compilation

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"I live in Mt. Washington at the top of a natural amphitheater of sound. Ice cream trucks, parties, car horns, coyotes, fireworks and, of course, helicopters combine with owls, hawks, crows and other bird species, buzzing flies, my dog and other sounds from my ridge to create a mix that's in constant flux," Bernard calls the work an homage to structuralist film and a kind of cross between John Cage's "4'33" and Andy Warhol's "Empire."

Haithman, Diane, A Year in the Life of Mt. Washington, Culture Monster, Los Angeles Times, September 17, 2009

October (for r.p.) is a film made as part of artist Cindy Bernard’s film series Year Long Loop, made from 2004 to 2005. According to the artist, “Recorded between October 2004 and September 2005 and completed in 2011, Year Long Loop documents the sound and view as experienced from the vantage point of a Los Angeles ridge. The work consists of one five minute shot for each hour of the day, organized by month, resulting in a continuous 24 hour loop. Inspired by the mix of sounds emanating from neighborhoods at the base of Mt. Washington, the soundtrack includes the cries of local wildlife (owls, coyotes, crickets etc.) combined with car alarms, gun shots, sirens and ice cream trucks, occasionally punctuated with the events of 2004-2005, including the presidential debates and the reelection of George Bush, the Indonesian Tsunami, the Iraq War, the Michael Jackson trial verdict and Hurricane Katrina.”[1] The film begins at night, offering the viewer a dark city scene with a clearly-lit main thoroughfare. Every five minutes, the scene changes – sometimes slightly, and sometimes drastically – and it becomes clear that time is passing. The abrupt jumps from clip to clip clarifies that viewers are not seeing an entirely continuous film, but rather one that has been edited and altered in some way while still bearing witness to the environment’s daily changes. In some scenes, the view is completely clear, while in others, it is completely obfuscated. This dealing with the passage of time is a recurrent theme throughout Bernard’s work.

[1] Cindy Bernard, “Year Long Loop”, Cindy Bernard Website, http://www.cindybernard.com/works/year-long-loop/ (accessed October 22, 2020).