Take it Like a Man
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Hi Ed,
I’m feeling a bit let down by the lack of reaction to your project. One would expect at the least a grumbled accusation of ‘fiddling while Rome is burning’, prompting some kind of discourse and clarification of what it is you are addressing with your ‘project’. As I mentioned at the outset, this kind of provocation can only be worthwhile if it does go beyond just being a provocation. At present I have the uncomfortable feeling of having gotten mixed up in some kind of old white guard cronyism, smugly slapping each other on the back over the success of another corrupt indeavour.
Then there is the other problem that the other artists in vrt2 have become reluctant to get involved in anything you organise, reasoning that you have found the slightest of excuses not to get involved in anything they have organised, but then expecting others to fall in with your plans at a moments notice.
As you can imagine it feels awkward for me and I have to wonder if there weren’t more pleasurable ways to fritter away R14 000,00, than to give it to you as a salary and project budget. I have seriously considering firing you, in fact. Perhaps this would jolt some more thoughtful articulation of why what you are doing is worthwhile to anyone, including yourself. In that interest, I would like to put forward some points for your rumination. I would appreciate your input. Lack of response will be the last straw. I should add that your dismissal would also entail stripping you of the new jeans.
In discussing your proposal, I was mindful of both your personal situation (the need to reflect, to find a new way forward), as well as the dilemma for artists here, pushed beyond their limits by the demands of daily life and then the question of how to respond to the problems involved in regenerating our society. The tension between the personal needs of the individual and social responsibility are the focus of very real time, and I know that you are thinking about these questions. So when I given the chance to pay all your bills, get some new clothes and reflect in tranquility, I was disappointed to see you embark on a shopping and drinking spree which seems to have left little room for a clear thought. Rather than an opportunity for regeneration, the funding seems to have served only to reaffirm your more regressive habits, fuelling an inward turned and one dimensional cult of the personality.
It is not the first time that the local artists taking part in very real time have displayed obstructive and self-alienating behaviour. Part of it I’m sure has simply to do with being too busy dealing with daily stresses of life in their hometown, but I think it is also mixed with some degree of shyness, insecurity and suspicion of outsiders. Emotions which we all suffer from, myself more than most. Things often get a lot more fun when insecurities are treated openly and with humour, rather than with guarded distance, hardball etc. We seem to agree that art is better in the warts and all form: unfinished, awkward, ungainly, giggling involuntarily. I often think that artists most meaningful contributions happen in spite of themselves. I would be so happy if something clumsy and unpredictable can still emerge from your participantion in very real time, and I look forward to your thoughts.
My best, Gregg
24 rue norvins
75018
paris, FRANCE
posted by Robert Sloon at 8:26 PM
20 Comments:
And here I had written off vrt2 as one of those tiring projects one can only engage with if you happen to have been there at the time when Bridget Baker left an indecipherable message for an unnamed recipient at an unidentified location. Good on you Gregg, you have revealed yourself as truly able to make a very succinct point. One which has been a long time coming. If this is the brain behind vrt2, it has got to be interesting.
ed is a very real time pain in the ass too
and he's hairy
Ed's parents must be very proud
fuck you
Ed's parents are also cousins apparently
i do what i want!
Maybe Ed should give Gregg a blowjob. I'm sure then he'll feel like he got his money's worth. Maybe his spelling will improve as well.
R14k could have been better spent on laser treatment for Ed's disturbingly hairy neck
this letter should be artwork of the week
it probably is, in terms of being the most absorbing thing anyone's seen in a while
Ed should be forced to pay back the 14k.
Everyone else, including the artists in vrt and mr gregg smith, are full of crap. Fuck all of you!
ed is a rockspider
I fuck myself nightly.
I would like to make a point.
I think mr smith is the fool here.
Why did he select ed in the first place? What did he expect?
What he probably wanted was to select a "cool" artist- so he would seem to be very hip to whats happening here. Everyone or most of(or at least the teeny-weeny art community here) know what ed does.
Nothing. Thats what he trades on. And i used to think he was quite good at it. There are many artists who would seriously kick his butt in doing nothing. Really well.
So ed's not not good at his game. And he's getting worse...Soon he'll be out of it completely.
Which brings me to why I think Smith is the fool. To throw money at ed and expect him to come up with something good, is like so naive. Maybe not naive, but idiotic.
So, Mr Smith, I put it to you, that you sir, you are the dick. And i think you and your "international" artists should get the fuck outta town. By high noon. And don't be coming back, moron.
We're like closed mind motherfuckers here, and dont appreciate it when foreign dicks (especially ex-south african now french dicks) come and swing their cocks around town.
So, piss off
In fact he (Greg) is one out to touch person.
out to touch which person?
hi manto you pea brain
garlic brain to you anonymous
Does Gregg read this blog? C'mon Gregg, give manto an answer here. And maybe Ed is fucking up your preconceptions of how the project was supposed to work. But isn't it supposed to be about communication problems in South Africa? Ed's a great example of what's going on in this country, problematic as it may be. Can't you get your head around that? You're from here, after all. Have you forgotten what it's like? Or is it that actual South African society doesn't conform to European stereotypes of what it's supposed to be like here?
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