July 10, 2006--Where Are You Jessie Helms Now That We Need You?
If I told you that the subject of this blog is—eating; drinking; defecating; urinating; vomiting (come on, keep reading); having sex (I told you it would get better); and being sick, wounded, violated, and killed, you would say either get a life or you might suspect I would be writing here about nutrition, medicine, or forensic science.
Sorry, but you would be wrong on all counts. My subject is the current art exhibit at P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, New York (see NY Times article linked below).
The title of the show is “Into me/Out of Me,” and among others includes the following works—
· A film of Vito Acconci hiding under a ramp at an art gallery opening while masturbating and talking dirty to the visitors.
· Photographs documenting performance artist Carolee Schneemann, also masturbating, pulling from her vagina and reading from a long scroll that contains a feminist tract.
· A room of photographs by Martin Creed of people throwing up.
· A large painted sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman of worms devouring numerous skeletons tied to a tree—sort of an homage to Goya.
I know, you are racing to the Number 7 Train to get over there before the show closes—relax, you have until September 25th so you can enjoy the rest of the summer.
I know I am sounding here like a fundamentalist, know-nothing philistine, a spiritual descendent of the thankfully-departed Senator Jessie Helms from the great state of North Carolina who, after he learned that the Federally-funded National Endowment for the Arts had made a grant to Robert Mapplethorpe to support the exhibition of his sadomasochistic homo-erotic photographs, cut all funding to the NEA.
I plead guilty; and in my state of self-acknowledged cultural atavism, I will also wonder out loud why the Times chose to review the exhibit so prominently and sympathetically.
Yes, Marcel Duchamp placed a urinal in a gallery in order to raise questions about what is art. Is art anything displayed on the wall of a gallery? That’s a good Dada question.
But pictures of people vomiting?
Sorry, but you would be wrong on all counts. My subject is the current art exhibit at P.S 1 Contemporary Art Center in Queens, New York (see NY Times article linked below).
The title of the show is “Into me/Out of Me,” and among others includes the following works—
· A film of Vito Acconci hiding under a ramp at an art gallery opening while masturbating and talking dirty to the visitors.
· Photographs documenting performance artist Carolee Schneemann, also masturbating, pulling from her vagina and reading from a long scroll that contains a feminist tract.
· A room of photographs by Martin Creed of people throwing up.
· A large painted sculpture by Jake and Dinos Chapman of worms devouring numerous skeletons tied to a tree—sort of an homage to Goya.
I know, you are racing to the Number 7 Train to get over there before the show closes—relax, you have until September 25th so you can enjoy the rest of the summer.
I know I am sounding here like a fundamentalist, know-nothing philistine, a spiritual descendent of the thankfully-departed Senator Jessie Helms from the great state of North Carolina who, after he learned that the Federally-funded National Endowment for the Arts had made a grant to Robert Mapplethorpe to support the exhibition of his sadomasochistic homo-erotic photographs, cut all funding to the NEA.
I plead guilty; and in my state of self-acknowledged cultural atavism, I will also wonder out loud why the Times chose to review the exhibit so prominently and sympathetically.
Yes, Marcel Duchamp placed a urinal in a gallery in order to raise questions about what is art. Is art anything displayed on the wall of a gallery? That’s a good Dada question.
But pictures of people vomiting?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
7:23 AM
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