Distinction

"What you feel and what things are aren't the same." - Donald Judd

I had no idea I'd find a kindred spirit in Judd, but I have. It started innocently enough, in a book recommendation, Spiral Jetta. The author visits Judd's work in Marfa, and her discussion of one of his installations leads me to think that in Judd I may find some clues and strategies for installing my own work. But there the fatal turn: in an academic moment, I borrow a book of essays (as opposed to pictures) from the library ("Donald Judd," edited by Nicholas Serota), on the premise that it is important not merely to reappropriate Judd's installation methods but to understand his reasoning.

In reading, I am finding that, first and foremost, Judd is an advocate of careful and conscious experience. Therein the kindredness.

So here we are. While I remain uncertain of the art/object status of my work (perhaps Fried will shed some light on this in his essay "Art and Objecthood," which I have also obtained) I am not sure of the importance of the distinction. I want to better understand how to express where I stand, not only for the sake of articulate apologia in critique, but also to elucidate my own awareness.

Also this week: I viewed photos of Marina Abromovic's work, after a friend's description of many of the works in her recent retrospective in New York elicited from me a somewhat incredulous response. I regret the response, for experiencing the recount spoke of the strength and impact of the work. But everything was lost in the physical description. The description is a handle, a way to refer to the work such that others understand the reference. But the work must be experienced.

Training Wheels

Now is the time to know
That all that you do is sacred.

Now, why not consider
A lasting truce with yourself and God.

Now is the time to understand
That all your ideas of right and wrong
Were just a child's training wheels
To be laid aside
When you finally live
With veracity
And love.
- Hafiz

You are so young, so much before all beginning, and I would like to beg you dear sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.
- Rainer Rilke

I've returned to my habit of bedtime reading. Since the move:
Letters to a Young Poet
Dirt. The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth.
The Last American Man
Illusions. The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah.
Spiral Jetta