Marco D’Andrea reconfigures a 1971 Cadillac Coup de Ville as a sound car in his site-specific installation, I Was Born Ten Thousand Years Ago. Originating from the same year Ontario Place first opened to the public, the car features a sound composition designed to be listened to while sitting inside it. D’Andrea’s installation explores the complicated symbolism of this vehicle—representing at once luxury, nostalgia, decay, desire, and hyper-consumerism—suggesting that these contradictions permeate our contemporary understanding of the 70s as a whole. Featuring field-recordings from Ontario Place, fragments of Morton Feldman’s composition “Rothko Chapel,” sounds of the Cadillac’s own engine, as well as distorted clips of music and natural sounds, D’Andrea’s composition mixes and warps sounds, bringing them just to the brink of familiarity. Borrowed from a traditional song included on Elvis’s 1971 album Elvis Country (I’m 10,000 Years Old), the installation title imbues the car with a mystical quality, suggesting an agelessness for this decidedly dated vehicle.
Biography:
Marco D’Andrea was born in Sharon, a small Ontario town. When he was growing up this was a semi-rural community and the legacy of the 1970s— long hair, big cars, loud stereo systems and hard rock on vinyl— still had influence. His father was born in Italy and discovered what it meant to be Canadian in a big backyard, a canoe, camping trips, rock bands and beer. D’Andrea grew up in this mix of Italian Catholicism and hard-rocking working-class Canadiana. He now lives in Hamilton, and the city’s cultural identity of declining industrial manufacturing, its DIY spirit and salvaging culture influences his work. He received a BFA in Media Arts from NSCAD and an MFA from the University of Guelph. His work has been shown in variety of settings across Ontario, including public galleries, artist run centres, and at music festivals as site specific installations. In addition to sculpture and installation, D’Andrea creates sound compositions and has a record coming out soon with Geej Recordings. He is also part of an art collective/heavy metal band called Shit Pyre.