Reference List A list of inspiration
	Perfect Lovers A re-interpretation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres' Perfect Lovers
	Cody on Cage on Joyce A writing through John Cage's writing through Finnegans Wake
	10mb (for George Maciunas) 10mb of video after the Fluxus piece 10 ft.

I started Reference List a few years ago as a way to place my work in a larger context. It became a way to describe my work—a sort of self-portrait as a list composed of musicians, writers, artists, and choreographers to whom I find myself drawn. I revisit this list every few months, adding and subtracting so that it remains current. Instead of a record of every person I've ever turned to for inspiration, the list serves to contextualize my current work.

In creating a project for …might be good’s Artist’s Space, I began by selecting two artists from this list: John Cage and Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The works I created are a nod to these artists and their influence on my work; Cody on Cage on Joyce is a random regeneration of John Cage’s Fourth Writing through Finnegans Wake (1983) and Perfect Lovers is a re-interpretation of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers (1987-1990), a pair of ticking clocks that Gonzalez-Torres set to the same time.

I'm interested in Cage for his use of systems as a method for eliminating choice. Gonzalez-Torres, on the other hand, infused his work with an incredible amount of pathos. Combining systems-based work with a desire to emote is a core element of my work. I find myself returning to John Cage’s Fourth Writing through Finnegans Wake and Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers. In particular, I’m drawn to the conceptual confidence of Cage's writings through Finnegans Wake and the minimal simplicity of Perfect Lovers.

While I don't usually create works for the Internet, it was the perfect medium for these pieces. Cody on Cage on Joyce randomly regenerates Cage's writing through Finnegans Wake. A web-browser’s refresh button interjects chance back into the text. In Perfect Lovers the QuickTime play bars mirror the sterile and minimal beauty of the banal clocks of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Perfect Lovers. At the same time, my piece exposes a flaw in Gonzalez-Torres’s work—contrary to his intention, the two clocks are almost never exhibited displaying exactly the same time.

I created 10mb (for George Maciunas) in 2006. I decided to show the piece again in the context of Perfect Lovers and Cody on Cage on Joyce because it references inspiration in a similar way. The piece is a recursive reference to digital video in the same way that Maciunas' original piece 10 ft. referenced the physical medium of film by literally projecting 10 feet of film.

Paying tribute to the artists who have inspired me and honoring their strategies and ideas, the works are an attempt to get closer to their work. Cody on Cage on Joyce, Perfect Lovers and 10mb (for George Maciunas) are an homage to the simple gestures in the history of conceptual art—Cage’s systems, Gonzalez-Torres pathos and Maciunas’ self-reference.

Cody Trepte is a New York based artist. His work is currently included in The Lining of Forgetting: Internal & External Memory in Art at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, on view through May 25, 2008. His work can be seen online at http://www.codytrepte.com.