heaven, open, purple, elastic (for sari)

steve roden is a visual and sound artist from los angeles. his work includes painting, drawing, sculpture, film/video, sound installation, and performance. roden's working process uses various forms of specific notation (words, musical scores, maps, etc.) and translates them through self invented systems into scores; which then influence the process of painting, drawing, sculpture, and sound composition. these scores, rigid in terms of their parameters and rules, are also full of holes for intuitive decisions and left turns. the inspirational source material then becomes a kind of formal skeleton that the abstract finished works are built upon. in the sound works, singular source materials such as objects, architectural spaces, and field recordings, are abstracted through electronic processes to create new audio spaces, or 'possible landscapes'. the sound works present themselves with an aesthetic roden describes as "lower case'' - sound concerned with subtlety and the quiet activity of listening. roden has been exhibiting his visual and sound works since the mid 1980's, and has had numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally, including museums, galleries and arts spaces in usa, italy, france, japan, bulgaria, slovenia, england, etc. recent solo shows and projects include susanne vielmetter los angeles projects, nicole klagsbrun gallery new york, san francisco art institute mcbean gallery, fresno metropolitan museum of art and science, tang teaching museum skidmore college, gallery e/static torino and studio la citta verona italy. recent group exhibitions include the centre georges pompidou paris, the san diego museum of contemporary art, the ucla hammer museum los angeles, the sculpture center ny, and the drawing room london. roden has performed his soundworks at various arts spaces and festivals worldwide including the serpentine gallery london, the san francisco museum of modern art; MIT boston, the walker art center, minneapolis; the dca dundee scotland; the musee de beaux artes nantes; as well as performance tours of brazil and japan. he has also released over 20 cds of audio works on labels worldwide. roden received an mfa from art center college of design in pasadena, ca in 1989, and a bfa from otis parsons in los angeles in 1986. grants include: nimoy artist in residency grant, COLA grant from the city of los angeles, california arts council grant, subito grant from the american composer's forum, city of pasadena artist's grant, and the durfee foundation. upcoming projects include a solo show of visual and sound works at susanne vielmetter gallery los angeles and studio la citta, verona, and site specific sound installations for the museum of open air architecture in ivrea italy; the grand promenade in athens greece; and the james turrel skyspace at the henry museum in seattle.