Yves Klein Speaks!
In Yves Klein Speaks!, the second volume of Art After Death, Archive engages the French painter and conceptual artist, Yves Klein (1928-1962). Archive worked with spirit mediums in museums in San Francisco and Houston, and at a private collection in New York City, to interview Yves Klein in the presence of his works; the cd includes narrated excerpts from four seances. The cd's liner notes include photographs of the works used during the seances, images of Klein himself, biographical details, and a discussion of the methods and practice employed in "channeling" Klein.
Dubbing himself Yves le monochrome, and the painter of space, Yves Klein believed that the world would be forever changed by what he called the Blue Revolution. Through manifestos, performances, sculpture, painting, and his own personal rituals, Klein's revolution would usher in a "technological Eden." His signature tool, offering the most direct access to divine immateriality - to the universe - was a particular shade of ultramarine blue. International Klein Blue could "impregnate" us, he believed, like happiness.
On Yves Klein Speaks! Klein's story is told in four different voices by four people who knew nothing about Klein when we brought them to see his work. None had been told ahead of time Klein's name, nor seen or heard of his work. Two of the mediums communicated through trance: Klein literally speaks "through" them. Two others served as relay operators, translating back to us the messages they received from Klein. In addition - according to medium Karen Lundegaard - Klein communicated through environmental sound: knocks, sirens, and church bells.