‘Working Class Hero (A portrait of John Lennon)’ is a 25-channel video installation depicting 25 John Lennon fans singing his 1970 solo album ‘Plastic Ono Band’ in its entirety. Removing Lennon’s voice and all backing music except for the bells which signal the start of the album, Breitz re-produces the album through fans’ a cappella performance.
She gave Lennon fans a chance to recreate the songs that have become the sound tracks to their lives. Participants had the opportunity to re-perform the complete 39 minutes and 55 seconds of the album, in a professional recording studio. By doing this, Breitz invites us to imagine a charismatic cultural icon not as a monolithic and isolated figure, but rather as a complex composite of those whose stories he/she has told and those whose lives continue to be inflected through his/her music.
Anna Schwartz Gallery
27 July to 28 September, 2013
Sydney
Working Class Hero (A Portrait of John Lennon), 2006, 25-channel installation: 25 Synchronizable Hard Drives, 39:55
Photography: Wolfgang Wössner
Courtesy the artist and Anna Schwartz Gallery
