“In 1996, Marclay plastered more than 5,000 posters of blank sheet music in public places throughout Berlin during a month-long sound festival. The posters functioned as an open invitation to the public to scribble musical notes, or any other type of graffiti. Marclay photographed the graffitied sheets, selected 150 from the group, and compiled them into a portfolio intended to be interpreted and performed by musicians. Graffiti Composition is the live recording of a one-time performance at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 2006. Led by Elliott Sharp, it features five world-renowned guitar players: Melvin Gibbs, Mary Halvorson, Lee Ranaldo, Vernon Reid, and Elliot Sharp.

The release of Graffiti Composition coincided with the opening of Christian Marclay: Festival at the Whitney Museum of Art, a groundbreaking exhibition highlighting the interplay between the visible, audible and performance that is the hallmark of Marclay’s work. The show focused on the artist’s graphic scores: art works with visual cues to be interpreted by musicians in performance. The exhibitionl featured select musicians’ daily live performances of Marclay’s scores and ran from July 1st through September 26th, 2010.” - Publisher