Isa Genzken: Retrospective

4 / 17

Isa Genzken. _Weltempfänger (World Receiver)_. 1982

Isa Genzken. Weltempfänger (World Receiver). 1982

Multiband radio receiver
Collection the artist
© Isa Genzken

Director, Glenn Lowry: Isa Genzken was drawn to the perfection of mass-produced technologies, particularly sound equipment. She once declared, "A sculpture must be at least as modern as the most modern hi-fi systems." Curator Michael Darling.

Curator, Michael Darling: This piece is called Weltempfänger, which, translated to English, means "world receiver." It's obviously not a piece that she made herself, but rather is a commercially available, rather high-end radio that would've been able to receive all kinds of radio signals coming in from all over the world. I think that alone is what makes this piece interesting, because around this time, she was thinking about sound, thinking about sound waves, how they travel through the world.