Photographer, Benjamin Rasmussen has curated a playlist that gives us a little insight into the role music plays in his creative process. The exhibition is on view at Pictura Gallery through May 25^th. You can find his statement and the full Spotify playlist below. Listen to the playlist while seeing the work in person this Friday (May 5^th) during Gallery Walk (5pm to 8pm).

“My creative process consists of three parts, each of which use music in their own way. The first is intensive research. I am a bit ADHD and dyslexic, so when I read I always need to shift my mind into that mode and I do that through listening to Glenn Gould’s rendition of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Literally, every year this tops out my most played record on Spotify. Friends tell me this is deeply disturbing and Hannibal Lecter like, but what can I say? The second part of my practice is making images, which typically involves being on the road and long, intense days. During this time, I seek out music that connects me with where I am and who I am spending time with. It is more about keeping me present and out of my head. The third part is about the edit and structure. I will usually find an artist or album to listen to while I put together a body of work, allowing that to be the heartbeat to which the images flow. I create the structure for work based both on the connection between images and the relation between image and text. Music creates a third relationship, not visible within the final work. 

For The Good Citizen, I listened obsessively to Nick Cave. His music shifts from incredibly dark (like his Murder Ballads album) to one of the most beautiful love songs I know (The Ship Song). He creates small worlds with his songs and the variety of those worlds add up to a complex and conflicting universe. That is what I tried to do with this exhibition. I wanted to move a viewer through complex stories and histories, some painful, some celebratory, but all complex.”

- Benjamin Rasmussen

If you haven’t checked out the show in person, make sure you join us Friday, May 5^th during Gallery Walk at Pictura Gallery or Tuesday — Saturday between 11am and 5pm. This show runs through May 25^th.