Mike Kelley (1954-2012)
Mike Kelley died yesterday. My favorite piece by Kelley is the installation ‘Pay for your Pleasure,’ which was originally put in the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago in 1988. A hallway is lined with pictures of Baudelaire, Wilde, and those sorts of people, with quotations from each of them about the artist’s (necessary) transcendence of moral constraints:
I ERECT MYSELF AT THE EXACT POINT WHERE KNOWLEDGE TOUCHES MADNESS, AND I CAN ERECT NO SAFETY RAIL.
‘BALZAC’
THE FACT OF A MAN BEING A POISONER IS NOTHING AGAINST HIS PROSE. ‘OSCAR WILDE’
IN OUR OH-SO-CIVILIZED SOCIETY IT IS NECESSARY FOR ME TO LEAD THE LIFE OF A SAVAGE.
‘COURBET’
THOSE WHO RESTRAIN DESIRE DO SO BECAUSE THEIRS IS WEAK ENOUGH TO BE CONSTRAINED.
‘BLAKE’
I DO NOT UNDERSTAND LAWS. I HAVE NO MORAL SENSE. I AM A BRUTE.
‘RIMBAUD’
etc
At the end of the hall is one of J.W. Gacy’s clown paintings.
The society’s website has the complete text.
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Living
Living with other people and learning to lose ourselves in the understanding of their weakness and deficiencies can help us to become true contemplatives. For there is no better means of getting rid of the rigidity and harshness and coarseness of our ingrained egoism, which is the one insuperable obstacle to the infused light and action of the Spirit of God.
Even the courageous acceptance of interior trials in utter solitude cannot altogether compensate for the work of purification accomplished in us by patience and humility in loving other men and sympathizing with their most unreasonable needs and demands.
- Thomas Merton “New Seeds of Contemplation”
In the News
A few items of note:
Propeller Magazine features an interview with David in their Fall issue. It can be read here. Why aren’t more interviewers as insightful and generous as Propeller’s Lucas Bernhardt? I have no answer for this.
Finger Magazine is an online publication that contains lists of songs compiled by artists (musical and otherwise) that you may or may not have heard of. They then put links to the audio together so that you can listen to this music. You can read and listen to our list here.
I am listening right now to the playlist they made based on our interview; it is weird.
The artwork above is from Tony Martin’s light show projections to accompany Terry Riley’s ‘A Rainbow in Curved Air.’ Have you listened to this? Please do!
Kill That Kid
We’ve really been enjoying this as of late…
Rise Up, Careful
Hi Friends,
We are almost finished making a music video. This one is the story of a tortured dancer who decides to branch out. I can’t wait for you to see it!
Talk to you later
Posted in BoW Videos 3 Comments
Saturday Night’s Alright for Peacemaking
David will be playing a few songs, old and new, at Pehrspace this saturday night (the 22nd).
Here is a little more information
Pehrspace is at 325 Glendale Boulevard
Roll To Me
We’ve been enjoying this wonderful Del Amitri video all morning. Why do so many youtubers “dislike” this? Why people do anything they do?
Euterpe & Calliope
There’s a brief interview between David and Erin Martin here in ‘Euturpe’s notebook.’ I discovered that Euterpe is the muse of music. Strymon the river god was the father of her child, as well as her sister Calliope’s child. The kids were siblings, as well as cousins. Calliope is the muse of epic poetry, not music, as her name would lead you to believe. How did the steam organ come to be called a calliope? In Greek, the word ‘calliope’ means ‘beautiful voiced.’ Is a calliope’s voice beautiful? Decide for yourself…
Palme
These days which, like yourself,
Seem empty and effaced
Have avid roots that delve
To work deep in the waste.
– Paul Valéry (tr. James Merrill)
