Audio monitors, CD player, amplifier
Variable dimensions
2000
Richard Humann • Testimonial • Audio monitors, CD player, amplifier • Variable dimensions • 2000
In Testimonial, Richard Humann turns the act of being judged into an artwork by inviting strangers to express their opinions of him anonymously. An independent answering service was established so callers could leave recorded messages without revealing their identities. Humann never knew who participated and heard only actor-read versions of the recordings, preserving the anonymity that allowed callers to speak with complete freedom.
The messages were transcribed and read by actors in a recording studio, separating the original voices from the opinions they conveyed. Presented as a two-channel sound installation played in a continuous loop, the testimonials become disembodied statements, detached from the identities, appearances, and circumstances of those who made them. The viewer encounters the judgments themselves, without access to the people behind them.
By placing himself at the center of a process he cannot control, Humann relinquishes authority over how he is perceived. The work creates an unusual reversal: the artist initiates the project but remains unable to identify his respondents or influence what they say. Anonymity becomes both a condition of honesty and a barrier between the subject and those who evaluate him.
Testimonial examines the distance between identity and perception, asking what happens when we surrender our public image to the opinions of others. The voices continue in an endless loop, offering judgments without resolution or response. Humann transforms the vulnerability of being evaluated into an exploration of the unstable relationship between how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others.
Richard Humann • Testimonial • Audio monitors, CD player, amplifier • Variable dimensions • 2000
Photo credits: J.B. Grant / Richard Humann Studio