Visiting Artist

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When I was at PS1 during my whirlwind stint in New York the days before going South, I came across what become a talisman of sorts for me during the next few weeks. In PS1’s cute little bookstore (new since I had last been there) I found a tiny book by painter Amy Sillman comically enough titled: Visiting Artist.

As time marched on and a bizarre homesickness settled in I found her book strangely comforting. Amy’s own predicaments, laid out in illustrated form develop a slight echo, her version horribly amplified which I found hilarious and true all at once.

Here is a sample:

I SPEND MOST DAYS AND ALL NIGHTS ALONE, EXCEPT FOR THE DOG.

I GIVE A SLIDE TALK ON MY WORK. THE DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM SNEAKS OUT EARLY. THE ONLY QUESTIONS AT THE END ARE ABOUT WHAT KIND OF PAINT I USE.

NO ONE SIGNS UP FOR A MEETING. FINALLY A FRESHMAN SIGNS UP BUT IT TURNS OUT HE WANTS ME TO COME TO HIS DORM PARTY AND GET STONED.

I EAT LUNCH WITH A STUDENT WHO ANNOUNCES THAT HE’S A GENIUS AND ASKS ME IF I HAVE ANY CHILDREN YET.

UNHAPPY FACULTY MEMBERS REVEAL THEIR LAMENTS IN THE FACULTY LOUNGE: ISOLATION, DIVORCE, DENIED TENURE, UNDERPAID, STAGNATION. TWO PEOPLE TELL ME SEPARATELY THEY WERE ABDUCTED BY ALIENS.

editorial footnote: I would have killed to have had my dog with me.

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Regency Art Press has also published other cool little books, one by Sean Landers that I almost bought, as they remind me of these Cartoons he used to have posted at Max Fish five million years ago that used to crack me up (one in particular comes to mind completely ridiculing a small baby back pack trend that didn’t look so great on most people). However that day, I left with only my one small purchase.

May 20, 2001

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We can accept the unintelligibility of the world, because in the end it is good. It’s good to be alive. The world is happy. We can open the refrigerator and drink a whole liter of orange juice right out of the carton. How delicious is that!
-Adélia Prado

Awhile back (I think more than a year ago)Bomb Magazine published an interview with Brazilian writer ADÉLIA PRADO, which has haunted me for some time now. Recently I have been frantically looking all over my apartment for this said back issue, and I can’t locate it anywhere.

All is fine though,unbeknownst to myself Bomb has kept its magazine on-line and the archives are plentiful.
I do not know much about Adélia outside what I had read in this article,but her approach to her writing is so lacking in pretense,strangely optimistic and full of humility I have been dying for English translations of her work to surface.

I did find Portuguese sites that contain tributes to her writing. Unfortunately, while it’s truly lucky for all of us now that search engines will run translations for you, I’m afraid as they say, a lot gets lost…. I am wary any eloquentness that might be emptied out of the writing. Fortunately Ellen Watson who sought Adélia out for this article has become the English translator of some her poetry. A book titled:The Alphabet In the Park has been published(edit:which I will undoubtedly be seeking out).

At any rate, this is a wonderful interview between two writers. One reason I felt compelled to seek Adélia Prado out again was by the concise tone she speaks in:

“My concern, my obligation is to reproduce the emotion as faithfully as possible. So I write a poem, and then I read it and say, No,that’s wrong, and then I cut it.

A word of caution for your patience. The Bombsite,bless them,loads rather slowly sometimes, but I recommend sticking with it because I think this is one of those gems.


A little FYI, Bomb’s current issue is up now too and there is a great interview with Wong Kar-wai, whose movie In the Mood For Love, was one of the lovelier cinematic experiences I have had this year.

PS Bomb is also responsible for the discovery of another one of my favorite authors, Jenny Diski, but I will save that for another time.

March 23, 2001

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On the local front:

Wburg Quarterly updates their content for a new Spring 2001 issue. Once again I am drawn to their ongoing “bookshelf” feature, this time a Brooklyn-centric selection. Subsequently I also found myself enjoying the Suzanne Wise “Stalking Writers” piece. She takes time to ponder a burgeoning writing life in the neighborhood and reflects briefly on the past,to overview famous authors who have graced the humble sidewalks here and then moves on to a few new ones too.

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Speaking of reading lists:

On my list of books this year to conquer is William T.Vollman’s most recent novel The Royal Family. Weighing in at a daunting 780 pages of pure ambitious Vollmanisms, I think he is one of the more overlooked authors of today. Vollman is someone who doesn’t strike you as pining for the limelight,so I’m sure this lack of notoriety leaves him unconcerned, as long as he has the resources to continue the pursuit of writing.

That one fact is why I can almost applaud Mr. Guccione Jr. for sending this man to all faces of the earth, to research and photograph articles for Gear Magazine. While in general I abhor the content in the rest of the magazine,I always splice his articles from the copy we receive at work, for later reading.

This month he reports on his travels to Kazakhstan (he titles it “the bleakest place on earth”) to investigate the health crisis associated with the oil company Tengizchevroil (TCO).The article provides enough conspiracy confirming details to make you want to scream your head off over our said ongoing American “energy crisis”. Vollman’s journalism always concerns its self with the other side,or the smaller side of the story,and here he spends a lot of time trying to get to know the working class people in the area:

“I myself did not have anything against TCO. In fact, my plan was to compare the life of a worker at Tengiz with the life of a municipal worker in Old Town- say,a member of the “Moskva Brigade” of snow shovelers. The snow shovelers all liked me. I photographed them day after day. They told me to bring vodka some evening when their “general” had dismissed them from work, and we could have a party and I could ask all the questions I wanted. But TCO refused to grant me permission to visit their operation, which made my intended comparison rather difficult. So I decided to go to Tengiz with out permission, and see what I could learn outside TCO’s gates. I still didn’t have anything against the company. I was just curious.”

Vollman’s writing can range from the poetic and romantic in his historical novels (he is writing a lengthy ongoing “Seven Dreams” project) to the dark, concrete harsh-reality reporting found in his earlier journalistic work (and currently Gear). While I don’t always agree with his politics (he recently wrote an article for Gear outlining why he is pro-gun ownership)I think the inventive, intelligent and the powerful scope of his prose deserves the attention of anyone willing to be absorbed by his world.

Read a recent interview with Mr. Vollman.

Also read about the sometimes hilarious extremes he went to regarding the start of his writing career in this interview .

Hopefully I will now go on to read a book.