Let me just say this. My position is unique. Made of brass, i can withstand a lot, and i was put outside. I was given a prominent place, the top of the steps to the old main entrance, that’s been closed for many years. These aren’t the stairs in Rocky either, and, i’m, technically, in a bubble called University Circle, a unique and large cluster of hospitals, universities and cultural institutions. Still, at night, you can’t believe what goes on, and, i’m here 24/7 at this closed entrance.
Let me tell you a story. People set dynamite at my base in 1970, and blew me off the pedestal. Look at my feet and lower legs, they’re gone. The museum should be honored for not rehabbing me, instead, creating a document of the times (1970) by simply putting me back on top of the pedestal
Inside, they treat the art with such deference and care. Occasionally bringing it out of comfy archival storage for a show, every once in awhile. Can you imagine someone blowing up a Van Gogh? Compared to my build, so much art is not really archival, but delicate, so i understand, but, i’m naked out here, and, the running joke has always been that i’m not thinking, but trying to remember where my clothes are. Such empathy. Let’s just say this, if there is a coming apocalypse, chance are i may still be here, although buried under the rubble of the cultural institution behind me.
I’ve thought about it now for over one hundred years, it coud all be gone in a hit of an asteroid, war or the newest plague. Enjoy it while you can, is what i came up with.
There’s been so many shows, and, The Tudors in all their Renaissance glory, is the epitome of outlandish, but classy fashion and gregarious tastes in food and art. Talk about fancy clothes. And, i’m out here in the snow and cold without any clothes on. No wonder i’m always thinking. Yeah, i know, thinking about food and clothing, but, to keep my mind off that, i tend to think about other things.
Been around for a lot of art. Never thought it would, in certain areas of contemporary art, become dominated by identity politics, political correctness, even cancelling careers, like Close. One thing i’ve been thinking about lately is this phenomenon (don’t look for logic), in art photography, where, after letting in black and white photography, with a documentary base, and becoming a large and equal part of their collections. Much later, with cibachromes, dye transfer prints, and, now, pigment ink prints, color photography with a documentary base was welcomed, from Eggelston to to Davidson, only to abruptly end with a surge of photography that questioned it, appropriated it or used it for purposes of identity politics and political correctness, since the early 1990s through today.
Now one person from the old “straight documentary photography” world has been picked to come into the museums. Just one, thank you. There still is documentary based art photography in galleries, though. Why are so many galleries devoted to simply, photography? There’s no reason for everything, but, here, there is a reason.
Speaking of which, both Hollywood and Art suddenly embraced “inclusivity” with more than obvious affirmative action corrections that may magnify the guilt of these elitist parties, and the truth of things, and, i happen to be, one of the things, not bronze-like, nor virtually bronze, i am bronze through and through, not fluid, but solid.
Mr. Williams said no truth, but in things which leads to me to think positively about post-facto thinking, Perhaps, that’s why i’m outside.
I’ll leave you with this thought from another time, that describes these times as well, “The introverted thought architect dwells behind the moon take it over by extroverted technicians.”