Precious Moments
How did you celebrate National Art Hate Week? Spraypaint a Picasso? Slash a Newman? Steal a Munch? Audition for a Bravo reality show about artists? But non-violent protest would have been valid. Silent contempt would suffice. Never underestimate the potency of a cold shoulder.
Tracey Emin, Everyone I have Ever Slept With (1963–95) (1995)
I celebrated by visiting a few summer group shows. Summer group shows are terrific. They are like a sampler platter at a seafood restaurant, which might determine the entrée you order next time. You can share with friends, then each will vote his or her favorite. “I liked the mozzarella sticks.” At D’Amelio Terras, my artgoing comrades in hate each selected a different work. I actively hated Permanent Occupant, by Aiko Hachisuka. That work is included in Tables and Chairs, curated by Jedediah Caesar and Shana Lutker.
Permanent Occupant, 2007 by Aiko Hachisuka
I actively, or maybe passive-aggressively hated it, because it’s so enchanting. Wish I’d thought of it.
With a couch as its support/catalyst, Permanent Occupant is an assemblage amalgamation of bedding and clothing stitched, buttoned, and bound together. Dozens of phantom children are wrestling or snuggling, then building pillow effigies/frankensteins/voltrons under the sheets while they sneak out at night. Mirror Stage sleepover?
Closer
Generations of childhood imagery jumble together: Star Wars mingles with Mickey and Minnie, nestled next to Shrek, bunched up against Winnie the Pooh. Disney holds hands with Hanna Barbera.
Cozy Couch
Yet the generation gaps don’t impose expiration dates. Through apparent timelessness, every figure resists obsolescence, and rather than being replaced by its successors, all of the characters merge in an ever-widening parade of glee, enlivening Collective Memory Boulevard with balloons and cotton candy.
Despite the cotton candy and balloons in its genes, Permanent Occupant has the stuffed, severed, and segmented limbs of a re-inanimated Scarecrow, and seems to host sibling rivalry, growing pains, and filial emancipation. There’s the Mike Kelley thing. It also reminds me of Derrick Adams’ work at Greater New York 2005, Look What You Made Me Do, and sometimes I just don’t feel like myself at Momenta Art.
And while the characters are ageless, they are also genderless. Star Wars might have found more favor with boys, its phosphorescent light sabers leaving boys – and some men – glistening with phallocentric drool, but then couldn’t girls identify with Princess Leia? Most of the Permanent Occupant co-ed cast share a unisex, universal appeal that boys and girls can enjoy together. Everyone liked Snoopy. Everyone liked Scooby-Doo (and Scrappy, too!). Is that why they are timeless?
Yes, we can!
Tags: Aiko Hachisuka, Art Hate Week, Billy Childish, D'Amelio Terras, Derrick Adams, Jedediah Caesar, light sabers, Mike Kelley, Momenta Art, mozarella sticks, Permanent Occupant, Shana Lutker, Tables and Chairs, Tracey Emin