Warning: This work has been rated 16+.
Untitled
"Exploring an unparalleled period in American art, this long-awaited exhibition reveals the full breadth of a movement that will forever be associated with the boundless creative energy of 1950s New York."
London
Sep 24, 2016 - Jan 2, 2017
Untitled is a title you give to something that doesn't really mean anything but at the same time it does. I mean, that doesn't stop you from calling it "The Liver is the Cock's Tomb" for basically the same thing. It encourages that annoying behaviour of making someone think they have an insight in shit - stop and wonder.
Dealers want titles.
You paint a canvas blue and splatter it diagonally (that requires some dedication to direction, it really does). Don't precisely remember if that's an actual description of a piece from the gallery but you get the gist. This is a couple of decades ago, you get famous (maybe infamous too, I don't know). Your emotions are expressed on this canvas. Abstract painting "confronts you", sorry Pollock from the 1950s. That canvas bores me. I am bored.
At Burlington House absorbing myself in and at an exhibition of abstract expressionism. Nothing in particular got to me apart from the audience pretty much attracts. I was more interested in the people. I'm always more interested by people.
Part 1: You get a certain type. Pretentious "cultured" pretty people - facades on the "individual". Mainly women, London because London, generic attires, most likely culottes, tight turtlenecks, chokers (if it's really that necessary), their made-up faces, fringes or short hair most likely, covering ears. Hoops also, lots of silver hoops and little backpacks - the kind that are just there to be there, the fancy ones. I judge them a lot, but I like observing; judging too, maybe. They probably have edgy Instagram accounts too. Cool people are to be found there too.
Part 2: Watching people so infused and fascinated by what's in front of them is pretty cool because it didn't do anything to me. Aesthetic and all maybe but nothing's making me sit down in the middle of the room against eager eyes; my legs weren't tired though. The people and the eyes actually made me find some use in the senseless work; wondering what's really grasping that random someone so much... or depicting enthusiasts. Listen to a French dad telling his 3 kids everything he has to say and feel smug because you can understand everything.
I conformed to my friend there. Friend took ages in the toilet - out of context.
Part 3: Leave the exhibition and go visit statues of curly-haired gods - fully nude of course only to take some snaps with captions regarding the little things.
Also, boobs everywhere on walls. It's art
Part 4: Throwback to waiting to enter the building; have a friend of similar humour and way of fun. Purposefully have a random middle-aged man photobomb your photo of your friend exerting peace signs and they will apologise for being in the photo when that's exactly where you wanted them to be. You don't say. It's a basic photo but you have a cool brain and eye, completely transforming the photo into something new featuring my favourite work of art of the day - the top third is like the Japanese flag yet black is in the middle, like an eclipse. The rest is just a black mess (messy hair). Stretch friends legs/daddy long-legs/sugar daddy/glucose guardian - Glucose guardian made me lol this morning (and safely, not in some barbaric style) which just adds this little crazy vibe and get rid of the man's ugly butt jeans by stretching his jacket into a long trench-like coat. To be honest, I should actually post the photo online and hope he sees it, like I did him such a favour, not only looking like he's on a vintage album cover but overly obtained a much better look.
Part 5: Escape the gallery after 30 minutes unnoticed avec friend to Japan Centre, finding and letting out your inner pig (previously let out not long ago at Wasabi - Aloe Vera drink is my fave) followed by running to Soho/Chinatown for some bubble milk tea which was super yucky. I don't even like milk. Had to run back with the drinks for 2:30 - mission accomplished. Gave the gallery's bin my drink in the end.
Burlington House
Piccadilly, London W1J 0BD,
United Kingdom
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Canary word: Present
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125,006 Literary Works • 672,809 Reviews
Hey LittleMiracle,
This is a hard one to review! Mostly I'm caught up between the beautiful way this sounds and acts like poetry with the flow of the meter and development, and the way that this is not very article-like despite being in the section of nonfiction. I can see how it is nonfiction, I can understand sort of what you were trying to do with it, maybe, but the problem I'm having most is that it's lacking the building which tells us why all of these parts actually work together to prove your thesis that "untitled" is a title that lets you imagine everything and nothing.
I feel like your thesis of this, this idea that in order for it to be good, it has to be titled for the prissy people in the galleries, is undercut by Elizabeth Dickenson who didn't title a single one of her poems. For her, the title was the first line of the poem, or, later, assigned a number to them.
That being said, I will tell you what I love about this piece, the language. I love the way you're webbing in and out of this story with these smooth lines and really detailing what's going on without really expressing dates and times so much through the, well, article, and dealing more with the concepts of what happened. At the same time, I think your introduction to the language where you swore at the beginning, as minor as it was, sort of broke up the flow of the language and made me startle a little, which might be what you're looking for, and it might not be.
In the end, I think really what you could do to sort of tie these things together would be to add another paragraph in each section that transitions back to that idea that you had about what "untitled" means, or even just throw in a line about "untitled" here or there in this and that would really start making it braid together.
Great job!
Hi there! Megrim here cruising through the green room for review day, looking for unusual things that haven't gotten much love. And this is definitely unusual. The title grabbed me, and the opening few paragraphs. I thought it might be a discussion on the merits of titles, the intrinsic value of them (what is a rose, by any other name, would still smell as sweet, right?). We seemed to get away from that rather quickly, however, and I thought maybe you were drawing a parallel with art--that things supposedly random or unintentional still require some deliberate, decisive thoughts behind them. But then we got onto talking about the people, and sort of meandering into your experiences at the gallery, and then I was thinking, is this just a commentary of your thoughts while you were at the gallery?
This is listed as article/essay, and I'm curious what the intent is. Are you using it for anything else? Submitting it anywhere? Trying to say something in particular? Or is it just a collection of thoughts you wanted to share with us? I think knowing what you wanted to get out of this would help with interpretation and critique.
Unfortunately I feel like I don't understand this at all. I didn't get any bottom line take-away. It seemed to wander from topic to topic without a lot of purpose. They teach you in school to do a thesis stasis and conclusion, and it seems silly--say what you're about to talk about, talk about it, and then wrap up by telling us what you just talked about. But it's actually REALLY useful and important in essays. As much as I scoffed at it when I was in school for sounding dumb, it's crucial for clear communication. I think you would GREATLY benefit from a thesis statement and conclusion here, no matter what the actual point is. It would also be helpful to streamline and focus the essay into more distinct, clear points of thought, so we can follow along one logical thought to the next. Right now I feel pulled left and right I had no idea what we were talking about or what was going on, and it seemed to change randomly from one paragraph to the next.
Sorry to be harsh, but I just was so confused! Good look with this, and feel free to explain it to me if I've missed something terribly obvious.