GOOD DJS TREAT THEIR RECORDS BADLY. The more you mix other people’s music into your own, the more you have to exploit vinyl’s stubborn physicality, pushing the bounds of that analog zone where ephemeral sound solidifies into plastic. In the 1980s, the Swiss American artist and influential turntablist Christian Marclay smashed his records with a hammer, glued the shards together, and played that chaotic assemblage—offering a punk-inspired take on 1970s performance art refreshed by the then-emergent figure of the disc jockey.

Much of the work in the exhibition “Christian Marclay: Compositions” at