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Mother's 45s

Chambers matched his mother's 45rpm records with the family photographs tocreate assemblages by using the hole spaces of the records to frame theimages. He eventually arrived at a satisfactory combination, incorporatingforty-five 45rpm records with images and a portion of each song onto an audiocassette to be used as a part of the exhibition. He faded-in/faded-out thesongs and looped them for continuous play and in order with the wall displayof the photo/record assemblages.

The photographs of his Mother were sequenced according to the chronology ofher life, which spanned almost 60 years. When the piece is viewed along withthe songs, the sound stimulus pulls the viewer from record to record (1 - 45)and this process has some interesting points: the maturation process of hisMother is seen; the man who came into her life and eventually became herhusband and his Father is seen; the maturation process of her only child (him)is seen; the change in hair and fashion styles is seen; the change in automobilemodels is seen; and various locales throughout the United States are seen. Thisproject (and its success) is the high point of his visual arts career for thesimple reason that it involves and perpetuates his Mother's existence.

The above installation is at Gallery One, Providence, Rhode Island, April, 1990.Chambers' mother's RCA 45rpm record player is seen as the centerpiece andsource for the sound stimulus. The assemblages are seen as a part of thesurround or 360-degree approach to encompass the viewer. Chambers is seenstanding near his mother's record player in the top-left photo.

Photo-Record Assemblages

News coverage: Lifebeat - Putting Mama On The Record, Providence JournalBulletin (April20, 1990), Providence, Rhode Island: "In a show that openstoday at Gallery One, the Texas-born artist bares a more personal, less publicside of himself. The result is a moving tribute to his own mother that Chambers

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hopes will stir memories and emotions in everyone."

News coverage: 8 Days A Week, The Phoenix's New Paper [The ProvidencePhoenix] (April 19-25, 1990), Providence, Rhode Island: "Make room for my45s right beside your 78s, Jackson Browne once sang to his father. Tom R.Chambers mixes his media to come up with a spin on that particular sentiment.Mother's 45s pulls the rug out from under ordinary nostalgia by pinpointingspecific sections of his mom's snapshots and strategically-placed seven-inchrecords (selections include I Get Ideas, Playing For Keeps and Little SmallTown Girl). An era is documented; the woman's pleasure concerns becomeevident; and a dying art form is given another purpose. In one fell swoop,Chambers chronicles how we interact with our memories and how thosememories are forever irretrievable."

Exhibition catalogue (ISBN #0-932706-20-7,1992): Parents, The Museum of ContemporaryArt, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio:"Like myself, artists Tom Chambers andCarrie Mae Weems can find themselvesunexpectantly reliving their childhoods by thechance encounter with a 1930s record hit orthe sweet chocolate-like aroma of fresh-brewed coffee." (Ron Geibert, Curator, WrightState University)

Chambers is seen at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Wright State

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University with his "Mother's 45s" project ["Parents" exhibition]:

Some of the photo-record assemblages are seen along with the record-protectors frontispiece andhis mother's RCA 45rpm record player [Photos by Doug Vogel, 1992].