meet your mother jordan

a mother is seated on a caned chair left of the painting titled, nude descending staircase, by marcel duchamp. jordan, a young man early in his teens, moves in and out, near and close, looking and looking elsewhere. mother calls calmly, “okay jordan, explain what light you see depicted in this painting?”

a rose has no teeth. bruce nauman’s self titled show at berkeley art museum.

spoke to mom and the dialogue confirmed my seat on the fence. to go, or to go on. my nomadic self is or has not been satisfied.

waiting for the bart train, i see a friend whom i share ohio roots with.andre shaw. he’s pleased to see me without the beard. ten years younger. that’s honestly a new teen. so am i any different? yes, and of course, no. here i am and this is not so evident. i am a passenger aboard this ocean liner as it weathers by natural entropy.
i will allow things to fall
apart.
i’m at a moment of weakness.

i’m in need of guidance.

i’m not afraid to watch this ship sink.

at times of war. these things we do. conscious or not, when actions are placed amid nonsense. at a moment of rest.speeds faster than me. within the amount of time it takes light to cross the width of a proton. all is possible to me.

rebuilding the city

• a shovel
• a hammer

• a shoe

okay jordan. what is it you see?

a whistler; the fireman-his hat is of costume plastic, he laughs after he chews his rice and beans; a whistler disguising his hunger with resonant noise.

the works of nauman are curated along a timeline marked in the 1960’s, before, during, and post the vietnam war 1964 -1975. considering this and the present u.s. war in the middle east, i could not ignore the conscious curatorial act to present works made in the context of war. the art works displayed generate an opportunity, a point of reference, to explore the social behaviors performed at a moment of disastrous military acts.

nauman brought a genuine focus to an intellectualized space. aesthetics neglected by an untrained eye. to look, is to see the beauty, raw and at times, unseen. to look at exactly what i can not see.

not much is different from the fireman or the whistler. their attention is on to the next achievable means to sustain a focused life. here an artist brings an efficiency to subtle beauty which lays between.

mont go mery

click here to see the painting, nude descending staircase, by marcel duchamp

From hand to mouth ; Da mão à boca 1967 Bruce Nauman