The latest from art world front lines...

[Project Willow]

My latest show "Harlow Monkey" was ignored, (locally) as was "Franklin & Madeline".

In reaction to that silence, I had a little art temper-tantum in my studio this past week.
It was again First Thursday, when most new shows open and people can, if I'm open, travel through my work studio. The tantrum materialized as an installation, comprised of only 3 pieces. Two were signs, one saying "Good" the other "Germans". The third piece was a sculpture composed of raw meat, some sculpted toe-like appendages, and some shredded paper containing the words endlessly repeated: "You are you are you are meat" The raw meat piece actually represents a psychic driving session I underwent. The signs were meant to be a wake-up, a message to the public and this local art establishment about their role in supporting our current policies, but also tied into the sculpture, as it was a "Paperclip" German who put me through the session.
What's odd is that I was so happy to be able to express my anger this way, and what's even more odd is that I might get more attention for the meat piece than any other show I've done recently.

People are weird, very weird. Photos coming soon.

[compared2what?]

People are weird, very weird.

Op. Cit.

Plus, it's a freestanding thesis that might be an interesting point of departure for works of art. In my experience, there's nought as queer as folk, and that's a universal, covering all folk, from lovely folk to Volkische folk. You just risk getting queer-bashed if you act as if you know it. Can't think of any artist for whom this has been....Hm. I guess sometimes Werner Herzog works that turf to make that point. It's at least one way of seeing Fitzcarraldo, anyway. But I don't think it's often explored as a value-free attribute of humanity. Which would be weird, if it weren't for the weirdness of people, which makes it normal!

I always love what you have to say, PW. Thanks for the food for thought. The...red meat, as it were.

[brainpanhandler]

Strangely enough, the fact that your harlow monkey show was ignored is thematically appropriate. People are weird to be sure, but I'd also say they're fucked up. I've been in an invisible cage all my life. There are days that I don't want anyone getting anywhere near me, let alone touching me. The flip side of Harlow's isolation experiments would be hyper contact, which I would imagine in it's own way is destructive enough. Then again, what is the "ideal" monkey (domesticated primate)? I guess I don't know what it is, but I know what it ain't. Some day I may try to start a discussion of Bronislaw Malinowski's studies of the Trobrianders. Wilhelm Reich found something there, but that is a whole 'nother can of worms.

[Project Willow]

Hi BP,
Makes sense to me and sounds familiar. I'm in a re-adjustment period since these recent experiences. Don't know where I'm going next. I should take as my example one Selma Waldman, who never stopped creating, being independent and head-strong no matter how she was treated. I wish I had met her before she passed.
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/art/archives/138316.asp?source=rss

Pics as promised, fwiw.




2008 Schirmer

Oh, for any NY people out there, I have two pieces in a group show opening May 17.
http://www.galeriebelage.net/