First - this laptop has intrmittnt "e"s. Sorry, but min is virus-riddn.
Long break - but this is a nw attmpt.
My return is not the rsult of any new exhibit or artwork. Intad, doing some reading, xistntial crisis, etc. Earlier this summer, I rad Martin Duberman's "Black Mountain." Although quite acadmic, I would argue that only suburbanites without any imagination could walk away from that book lacking the desire to create, to xpand, to grow. (By the way, Tom and I live in the suburbs of Marfa - so no slam intended.)
Then - Graveyard of Empires - Afghanistan. You have to wonder whether any politicians have read this book and considered the implications. Afghani soldirs bought off by one side one day, the other side the nxt. The US supportd the Taliban until it didn't. Absurdity. One can hardly imagine a book of fiction that would be as absurd as th rality of Afghanistan. On top of this - I saw the movie "The Hurt Locker." Chaos. Chance. Let's send more troops in???? Why? Thr will be no victory - just as there is no victory in Iraq. Spiralling out of control - that's all.
Most rcently - Paul Auster's NY Trilogy - City of Glass - phnomenal stretch of imagination and the conscious/subconcious.
Although Black Mountain was hopeful, despit petty battles, Graveyard and NY Trilogy lead you to qustion what's it all about! Whr are we going and why? Should anone really care? Are we actors? puppets? significant in any way whatsoever?
Are we any better off than men of th stone age? Grat - w have I-phones (that rarely work in Marfa b/c AT&T's 97% coverage xcludes W TX). Computers (w or w/out viruses). cars, planes, you name it. But whose lives are better b/c of this. Whose lives are torturd b/c of our grat mdical care?
So - in light of all of this - I might have to crawl back into my little nook of art and consider it to be important and worthwhile.
By th way - one of th most beautiful rcent art books - Wolfgang Tillman's Lighter, which includes an essay by Julie Ault - an absolutely lovely woman who visitd Marfa. A woman who - along with other artists of Group Material" cared/cares and helped inspire.
http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00002187&lang=en
