Rick Myers: "An Excavation / A Reading (Before the Statue of Endymion)", 2013

"In collaboration with the Acropolis Restoration Service - Ministry of Culture and Sports, Athens – off-cut fragments of recently quarried, protected Pentelic marble were obtained from the work-site of the Parthenon renovation. The text of a single translation of the C.P. Cavafy poem "Before the Statue of Endymion" was rendered legible using the powdered marble fragments – upon a taut membrane suspended over two audio speakers. Audio waves from the reading of an alternate translation of the same poem disrupted the visible rendering of the text. Another translation of the same poem was rendered in-place of the previous version, while another juxtaposing translation was read aloud – and so on.

Acknowledgements

Pentelic marble fragments supplied by the Acropolis Restoration Service - Ministry of Culture and Sports, Athens – with the generous support of Vasiliki Eleftheriou.

Translations of the poem "Before the Statue of Endymion" used courtesy of: Edmund Keeley with acknowledgement to Philip Sherrard; Aliki Barnstone; Stratis Haviaras / The Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University; Alan Boegehold.

Translations read by Peter Gizzi."

—Rick Myers