Jerry Hsu Signing

If Everyone is Let Them-ing Who is Doing?

Come by Abri Mars in New York. Wednesday October 1st from 6PM - 8PM. Open to the public. 53a Stanton Street.

Jerry Hsu is in town from Los Angeles. He’ll be signing copies of a new zine I designed and published on the occasion of the One of One exhibition that is now on view at the gallery. Till October 25th.

I have some other news. I’ve recently signed on as Visuals Director (at large) to a newish magazine called Family Style. I get to talk to and work with more artists but in a slightly different capacity.

It’s a nice addition to my curatorial work.

Now back to the UNregularly scheduled newsletter.

Been thinking about bookends a lot. Another 9/11 anniversary having passed. It was a life and culture shifting world event. Occurred at the beginning of my adulthood.

Thought about Simon & Garfunkel’s song with the same name.

Time it was and what a time it was, it was
A time of innocence 
A time of confidences
Long ago, it must be
I have a photograph
Preserve your memories
They're all that's left you

Certainly felt like a loss of innocence after the towers fell. Loss of anonymity. To not be surveilled. Cameras now omnipresent. On every street corner. More recently in our hands.

I wondered how the Charlie Kirk shooter thought he’d actually get away. Talk about a loss of innocence. Kid was 22 years old. I don’t get it. Don’t agree with anything Kirk had to say. But I liked that he was doing it in person. Rather than online. Sad to see both lives ruined.

I thought about a poem I once watched the great literary critic Harold Bloom read from memory. On Charlie Rose’s show many years ago. “Into My Heart An Air That Kills” AE Housman.

Into my heart an air that kills
From yon far country blows;
What are those blue remembered hills,
What spires, what farms are those?
That is the land of lost content,
I see it shining plain,
The happy highways where I went
And cannot come again.

Sounds pastoral. Reminded me of a picture I took. Sitting in traffic on the way home from Newark Airport.

Had me thinking of this Francis Bacon oil landscape painting. 1952.

Leap into the Void popped into my head. Yves Klein. Maybe it’s the wavy tall grass in both picture and painting. Or maybe that it was a fabrication. Klein merged an image of himself jumping with an empty street scene. He wanted the viewer to question the reality of images.

Maybe it’s the absolute fuck it what’s the point apathy I can cut through with a knife that permeates the air and culture today.

I thought about this Tina Barney picture. From a different time. 1977.

Cuz there’s always been chaos. In ‘77 New York’s massive blackout. Son of Sam. Gripped the country in fear. Fiscal collapse. Post Watergate. Post Vietnam War. America and New York were battered and indifferent.

And yet we pushed on. I read and hear the phrase “we’re so fucked” often. I’m more optimistic.

I thought about Agnes Denes’ Wheatfield - A Confrontation.

Summer of 1982 Denes planted and harvested wheat on two acres of land on a landfill in lower Manhattan. Two blocks from the World Trade Center. Land worth $4.5B. A paradox and symbol representing food, energy, commerce. Referring to the mismanagement, waste and world hunger. Misplaced priorities. She had the wheat harvested and distributed to counties in need. Read more about it here.

9/11 as one bookend. Covid was another. Changed how we process time. A drastic move towards how media is consumed. Culture shifted to very online. Not new thoughts. I know. Stay with me.

It has me thinking about repetition. In art it’s a beautiful thing— like a Stanley Whitney painting.

a reflection of life at the same time. Which can be quite tough. As one hard headline crashes onto our phones after another. And I hear a lot of the same thing.

Let Them. Or If he wanted to he would. Sure. Maybe. But if everyone is Let Them-ing who is doing?

Reminded me of The Smiths. Ask Me.

Shyness is nice, and
Shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life
You’d like to
So, if there’s something you’d like to try
If there’s something you’d like to try
Ask me, I won’t say no, how could I? 

I hope the shows I’ve been putting together are making you want to see something interesting in person. And if you do— it distracts you from the troubling things happening around us. Made me think of a picture of Jerry’s. Featured in his zine.

Hope to see you at Abri Mars in person.