Qaeda, Quality, Question, Quickly, Quickly, Quiet

2002 / video 18 mins

President Bush's 2002 "Axis of Evil" speech, arranged in alphabetical order.

"Be it a labour of Love or a labour of discontent, Lenka Clayton's 'Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet'? is one of the most painstaking, tireless, intelligent, noteworthy releases we've ever had the pleasure of listing in our catalogue... Apart from the quite mind-boggling effort and technique applied to the construction of this recording, what makes it so engrossing and worthy of your deepest appreciation is the lack of any commentary, though the message is completely clear... Lenka's work is not only hugely humorous, ominous and prophetic, it achieves this without any intentionally distortive re-arrangement or splicing for effect."

Boomkat.com

"The project is so simple as to constitute a prank, but a result is a bracing piece of avant-garde agitprop that provides an X-ray of American political oratory in the wake of 9/11"

Dana Stevens, New York Times

"At once a gesture of joyful naivety and innocence, and also laced with the darker implication that this might be a more coherent way of finding meaning in the string of half-truths, platitudes and dangerous hyperbole."

Matthew Herbert, Modern Painters

"I won't spoil the ending, but it just may prove the existence of intelligent design. And if QQQQQQ doesn't make you think "America" sounds almost sinister excerpted from codes and context, I'm Saussure."

Laura Sinagra, Village Voice

"Qaeda Quality Question Quickly Quickly Quiet... a very instructive enterprise; you learn a lot about themes, about expression, about vocabulary."

Rabbi Scott Corngold, The Bulletin - A monthly newsletter of Temple Emanu-El of Lynbrook, NYC