Some things you never forget. For me, these things include the entire ninety word title of Fiona Apple’s second album. And where I was when I first encountered the Vengaboys. It was in a fancy hotel in Helsinki, if you were curious. It was also, not coincidentally, I feel, where I first encountered a bidet (I was mystified).
Also, I need to remember that, in order to function, I have to hear “We’re Going to Ibiza” at least once in every 90 day period.
These are just some things I’ve had kicking around for awhile. The first photo is all of my little brother’s unwanted soccer and science fair trophies. I took them apart to remove the little plastic genie lamps and soccer players, and I took off the name plates. I don’t know what, if anything, I’m going to do with them, but they’re nice things to have around. I’ve actually never won a trophy, though I’ve always wanted to. Quite desperately. I’ve won a few ribbons (for some reason they’re always pink. I don’t know what that’s about), but never any trophies. I don’t know what I would have gotten a trophy for, mind you, but that’s really neither here nor there.
I’m beginning to think that, if all of my work were to be shown together, it would have the effect of resembling nothing so much as a kind of pathetic, miscarried child’s birthday party (that was meant to mean a miscarried party for a child, not a party for a miscarried child, but either sort of works… though the second reading is way creepier). Between the sadly distorted party decorations and the ambiguously dead stuffed animals, it’s all getting to be a bit too melodramatic for my liking.
The second photo are some things of Mom’s that I gathered together. The blue saucer on the left is from, I believe, a tea set that she had as a girl (it was in a box with all of her old dolls); the one on the right is a piece she bought a couple years ago, when she was very much into collecting Limoges porcelain. The tag at the bottom is one of her old calling cards. There was a nearly-full box of them in her office. I don’t think calling cards were that frequently given by the time the 60s came around.
I don’t know if I want fix everything in place and seal it up (the box is the backing for a shadowbox frame), make it a “piece,” or whatever. It’s just nice to have. There is sort of a Perfect Lovers feel to it, as it stands, which I appreciate. But I just don’t know. I don’t really have a framework in mind for working with found objects. I’m pretty rooted in labor. Meticulous, repetitive labor. So things like these feel like cheating. Which, in a way, they are.
Anyway, speaking of Félix González-Torres, if you haven’t seen my friend Jack’s work, I think it would be worth your while. “Friend” is a bit of an overstatement–mostly we spent three years at school just smiling awkwardly at one another whenever we’d pass, but, suffice it to say, I think his work is probably the best that I’ve seen come out of MICA in… ever. Anyway, the connection is just that there are González-Torres references throughout. The work is very smart. And cold. But also incredibly sweet, more often than not. Basically, it’s everything I wish my work was.
So that’s that.
La dee da. Throwing away garbage-bag after garbage-bag’s worth of pieces of my childhood. Ho hum.
But not the Zbots. They’re not going anywhere.
Pretentious Words I’ve Used in Art History Papers
