No response from Robinson Alistair nor the daft gallery1 we begged so I upped the ante with a pdf submission of our Work 43 to the Radical Art Review in London who are asking for it. We await their response with absolute serenity. In the other window I am penning a submission message to the most contemporary art gallery I could find which was something called Von Bartha of Basel and shall send it off toot sweet without a second reading. Serenity now!2
I am still layed up here with my sciatic nerve being played like a violin string by some muscle of mine so I have decided to have a little fun with these proposals. It is passed the point where we actually think any of this type of work is attractive to an exhibitor and have switched to the more cynically provocative and no doubt easily dismissed games of the bitter radical. Look here, we have said it before and we'll say it again: "in our defiance we hit all the wrong notes"3 and that remains as true as ever. Is it any wonder if when one rushes off down such a lonely and difficult road one eventually looks back to find nobody has followed? Yes indeed our efforts are purposefully designed to not quite fit in so it is no surprise to be ignored but the nagging truth might well be that to the eyes of others our efforts are understood but simply fall short or are adjudged to actually be the self absorbed naval gazing that we are putting on or worse still to be some unthinking, blinkered reactionary. Perhaps a bit of all that but one thing that I feel can be said is that we require an exceedingly sympathetic, patient and willing audience in order for our offerings to gain traction and that is hard to come by. So we now cast submissions to a variety of contemporary Bouguereau's4 out of some codine fuelled Cezannian bitterness while the Whites and the Browns5 make hay in Alaska and Albercurce respectively. Can you blame us?
Another run of pears Done.
Bests,
John
1 Refers to messages sent to the curator Alistair Robinson and an unknown commercial painting gallery. See Work 47.
2 Unknown meaning. A search for 'serenity now' leads only to the popular situation comedy Sienfeld.
3 See DS 2 Work 1, paragraph 6.
4 William-Adolphe Bouguereau was a French academic painter and enemy of impressionism and Cezanne in particular. See also Work 1, note 8.
5 Refers to the family names of the characters in Breaking Bad and Alaskan Bush People programmes reffered to in Work 48