beulahbondo's Diaryland Diary
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Love for sale
"Art Star" Barbara Kruger is how they billed her, and that's exactly how she acted.
She showed 30 minutes of slides that we've all seen on the postcards, and talked about them in a clear and kindly way, until she got to the ones that were backwards, and then the ones that were missing entirely, and then that's all she could talk about: the ones that were supposed to be there, the ones of her latest important installation, the installation that addresses and critiques her earlier work. And she got noticeably crabbier.
(Now in the late '80s I was all for Barbara Kruger and Jenny Holzer, probably because they deal with words and I like words. I was surprised that the Carpenter Center auditorium was packed and overflowing tonight, though.)
So BK finished the slides and took questions. And that of course sounded like this:
"Mmmblble mmbrble images mmbrles blblblbled influence, and blmbllel lllblblelel."
[Someone from back of house]: "Barbara, would you repeat the question please?"
BK: "Oh, give me a break. No. Now, blah blah blah blah, long long answer to unheard question."
Etc. Etc. One chippy undergrad in the front row, of course in the front row, started a polite argument with her about, as far as I could hear, what BK's political engagement had become, and how her work seemed to have softened.
"Political? What do you mean political? I mean, I'm a feminist, I'm a woman, but what is feminist art? What is political engagment? [Etc etc.] Who's a political artist today? You tell me, cause you used that phrase." BLAH BLAH BLAH.Then she snarled about how people used to get on her for criticizing capitalism, then selling her work for huge amounts of money. "Whatever," she concluded this particular snarl.
This was still going on when I left. Upstairs some very jolly drunk guys in paint-stained tweed blazers who seemed to have wandered in from Greenwich Village in the 1950s were enjoying the wine and fancy snacks. One of them helped me on with my coat. That was nice.
My point seems to be this: BK is simply a graphic artist. Whatever.
I did sit next to a nice woman who is going to send me a copy of the interview she did with Yoko Ono for Art New England. I heart Yoko! Even though she embarassed my friend Hannah one time at a sushi restaurant.
Did Bernard Cardinal Law go to Rome to get his severance check directly from the Vatican? Or what?
Good night--Beulah
10:42 p.m. - 2002-12-09
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