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Letter (page 2), from the portfolio "Letter and Indices to 24 Songs"
Hanne Darboven German
Not on view
Darboven’s work is premised on accumulation, permutation, and infinitude. The artist often visualized both time and music with numbers, and to this end, she developed a system for representing information in graphic form, which she called "mathematical prose." This work consists of a four-page letter to a friend, the artist Sol LeWitt, and the indices to six of the songs that make up her composition 24 Gesänge (24 Songs). According to Darboven’s letter, "Each song is dedicated to a letter of the alphabet, a through x, and each is composed in three parts (I, II, III) and two forms (‘A’ and ‘B’). A form uses numbers 1–61 and B form uses numbers 1–10." These notations are joined by one of the artist’s signature motifs: "u," the German equivalent of an ampersand. Repeated throughout the work, this shortened form of und (and) symbolizes boundless repetition. When displayed, the pages proceed from top to bottom and then from left to right.
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