I feel I must preface this confession. I’m pretty liberal. I believe in universal healthcare, choice, and all that stuff. That said, Donald Rumsfeld is responsible for one of my most used personal mantras.
Remember when there was a war, (that kinda is still going on but we’ve decided not to pay too much attention to all that) and Rumsfeld said “We go to war with the army we have, not with the army we want” and it was in response to American soldiers not having proper equipment? Remember that? I say that to myself all the time. It really helps me square my jaw and figure shit out.
I use it for everything! In the kitchen when I need 2 eggs and have only one. Me and my one egg army is all I have and I make do. Said it probably a billion times to myself during my installation, which was rife with technical difficulties. The phrase has a very pioneer spirit.
I’m also fond of something else he said that kind of got panned in the press, which was that the Iraq war was going to be a “long hard slog”. So when faced with a really difficult task I just take a deep breath and say: “This is going to be a long hard slog, and we go in with the army we have, not with the army we want.” Mental breakdown averted! Liberal shame sort of induced.
So I salute you sir! Thank you for your weirdly inspiring words. Too bad you’re still pretty much a war criminal.
One of the pet peeves I have about The Art World is its vampiric and fetishistic approach to “youth”. This ridiculous blog post, and show Younger than Jesus featured in the NYTimes is emblematic of this attitude. First let me just say, I am in the age range featured in the show “Younger than Jesus”. Lest you all think I am an old lady curmudgeon, indignantly clutching at my Eileen Fisher cardigan.
This approach is ultimately a shallow marketing ploy: the hip young things, the sort of anti-intellectual, and flippant yet not terribly provocative invoking of the lord’s name etc. As a woman I will admit that I am more sensitive about aging. Everyday I am told I am pretty much worthless past the prime of my youth. My own father frets about my marriageability and empty womb. While I embrace my early grays and fine-lines I am also acutely aware that my years as a cute sexy young artist will sooner rather than later be over. So yes I resent shows that objectify hot young artists! Am I so idealistically naïve that I truly believe that its about the art dude!?
In the real world I work with and admire artists of all ages. I like it that way. In fact crazily enough most artists are over the age of 30. You can only be under 30 for so long and then you’re really stuck with the rest of your life. At some point Younger than Jesus artist Ryan Trecartin (whose videos I truly love) is going to be stuck with his hyper-crazy florescent soapy videos well into his 30s. Will the value of his work just immediately plummet? Possibly. Its been known to happen if you come up too young and too fast.
Luckily for me I’ve always been a cranky old lady.
I have a new installation up at the 301 Gallery at the Montserrat School of Art in Beverly, MA.
301 Cabot St.
Beverly, MA
Also accessible by commuter rail!
It is in the window, so check it out whenever you can. No need to worry about gallery hours or the like. Opening party to be determined…
Sadly this is the best picture I could take. The sun was setting in such a way that mucked up every shot. I will try to go back when it is darker to get a better shot. This is the shortest amount of time I have ever taken to do an installation. Usually I take a couple days to set everything up. This time I showed up a little before 10am, and I was done at around 2pm. Of course my superstitious brain is going overdrive and is convinced the whole thing is going to collapse on itself overnight. Since my work uses ad-hoc electronics I always live in fear that it will “break” or just stop working. It has been suggested to me that I should create a future artwork about this fear…
There were a few incidents that prevented it from coming together too smoothly. I pulled a couple muscles because a) I am really out of shape, and b) the space itself is only about a foot wide, so I constantly had to position myself in weird and uncomfortable angles. I also ran into some trouble with the staple gun I was using to put the piece together, and it was soon realized that my quarter inch staples were not big enough. So a last minute trip home depot was in order, which I hate doing in the middle of a project as it makes me feel really unprepared.
But! While installing the piece, a Guatemalan man came up to the window and I had a nice chat with him. It was nice to talk to someone in who actually understood what most of the text meant, and I felt hopeful about perhaps reaching out to the Spanish speaking community in Beverly.
Edit: I forgot to mention that this installtion is best viewed when it is darker out.
Opening is tonight from 6-9 at the 808 Gallery.
808 Commonwealth Ave. Take B line to BU West
for more info go to http://www.bostonyoungcontemporaries.com
