Anyone there?

Artist James Webb channels Orson Welles in one of his most fascinating works yet

Only James Webb could turn the common answering machine into a dramatic space of jest, acknowledgment and serious artistic pursuit. His latest work Telephone Voice was conceived for the  Palais de Tokyo in Paris’s  monthly Répondeur exhibition of audio work that is created for the exhibition space’s answering machine. Webb approached the piece from the perspective of the answering machine as both a theatrical space and a time capsule of sorts.

“With these inspirations in mind, I knew that I had to make contact with the past, and more specifically, the dead,” Webb explains. 

In line with some of his previous projects – such as undergoing  hypnosis over a period of two years for his  artwork Autohagiography and attending spiritualist meetings for an installation  Prayer exhibiting at the Johannesburg Art Gallery next year – Webb worked with a psychic to channel the renowned American film director and screenwriter Orson Welles.

Welles is a fascinating choice, not only for his legendary direction and narration of H.G. Wells’s  War Of The Worlds, but also for the similarities that Welles’s artistic repertoire shares with Webb’s own portfolio.

“The theme of influence is of great interest to me, and Welles has cropped up in my own work many times. On one particular level, this project was a method of examining my own artistic ancestry. The notions of projection, influence and translation come up in the working process of all artists, and it's important to find creative ways of exploring and analyzing them.”

Although Webb is quick to concede that all of his work is sprinkled with a fair dose of humour and poking fun at conventions – or to use Welles’s own analogy, a tongue-in-cheek look at those that “buy snow from Eskimos” – there’s also a serious undercurrent that bolsters the work and provokes his audience into further thought and investigation.

“The work is both specific and open enough to encourage a variety of readings, and the message can be interpreted in numerous ways,” he explains. “I leave these answers for the audience to determine.”

As Telephone Voice draws to a close, Welles ends off (quite poetically) with “Call me if you need me”. Webb couldn’t have asked for better parting words.

“It is the ideal conclusion,” he says. “And I certainly plan on taking him up on his offer.”

This article first appeared in CitiVibe in The Citizen on Wednesday 17 August 2011.

Telephone Voice runs until August 31.  To hear the work online, visit: www.palaisdetokyo.com/fo3/low/programme, click on the thumbnail at the bottom displaying an icon of James Webb’s Telephone Voice and then click on the “podcast” link.