I cracked. I just had to do it. Desperate, to cling to something tangible, to some proof that it hadn’t been a demonic prank, or glimpse into the echoing abyss…
I bought the catalogue for the Voids exhibition.
Now the 500 page black hole sits there on my table, inert, ignoring me. Gingerly approaching the perilous edge, I’ve read a few paragraphs – but I’m scared of falling in. I think I’ll hide it somewhere and just try to forget. It might be a useful exhibit one day, when I’m on trial for Reactionary Bourgeois Philistinism. I’ll be able to point, screaming wildly: it was THAT what did it!
Steven Pinker said in The Blank Slate: “Art works because it appeals to certain faculties of the mind”. In other words, when art doesn’t work, it’s because it doesn’t appeal to any faculty of the mind.
Actually, we do have a faculty for abject nothingness: it’s called death. But rank nihilism is not something to be exalted, however thick the glossy brochure.
October 3rd, 2009 at 11:02 pm
You are a better man that I am, Gunga Din, even to have bought it. Yes, I know, modern art conveys emotion–but so does smacking yourself on the thumb with a hammer while trying to hang a picture on the wall. But, as long as you own it, make good use of it. Leave it on the table, invite several people over for drinks(preferably ones you don’t know well), and maybe someone will notice it and invite you to his or her next showing.
October 9th, 2009 at 1:22 am
The book has five separate introductions, written (or is it “written”) by various grandees involved in the exhibition. One of these introductions is – you guessed it – a blank page.
Priceless. (Well… 39 euros actually.)
February 17th, 2010 at 8:43 pm
.
February 17th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
Samuel: a brave, astonishing, and pertinent comment. Thank you. I’m speechless.