Take a photo of a barcode or cover
In the midst of this gloom, to create is an act of enlargement, of affirmation. It lights a candle in the darkness, offering solace, illumination—maybe even the possibility of transformation—not just for the maker but for the reader or viewer, which is to say all of us. Art urges us to imagine and inhabit lives other than our own, to be more thoughtful, to feel more deeply, to challenge what we think we already know. Art declares that we contain multitudes, that more than one thing can be true at once. And it gives us a breathing space, in which we can listen more than talk, where we can attentively question our own beliefs. It gives us a place in this chaotic world in which to find the sort of meaning that only arises out of the stillness, deep within our quiet selves.
These ups and downs are part of the story of every gemstone, and have been throughout their history. I could not put it better than the Persian scholar al-Biruni, who wrote in the eleventh century: "The prices of jewels are not stable. There is no law governing their prices, and there is no reason why these prices should not fluctuate with time and place. Each country, each nation carries its own temper. Furthermore, at one time nobles begin to sell them off and at others, to stock them. Stones are plentiful at one time and scarce at another. God grants honor to some and disgrace to others."
Virginia Woolf's 1927 essay 'Street Haunting' is an attempt to claim an ungendered place in the city by walking through it. Out in the street, we become observing entities, 'part of that vast republican army of anonymous trampers'. Whether or not we want to be androgynous eyes taking in the city, or bodies inviting desire, or any of the myriad ways of being in between, Woolf is telling us that we can integrate ourselves into the world of the city by becoming attentive to the shifts in the affective landscape. It is only in becoming aware of the invisible boundaries of the city that we can challenge them. A female flânerie – a flâneuserie – not only changes the way we move through space, but intervenes in the organisation of space itself. We claim our right to disturb the peace, to observe (or not observe), to occupy (or not occupy) and to organise (or disorganise) space on our own terms.
The feminist act of decreation is making something that one acknowledges will fail, will decay. The work will not endure. The performance is documentable on video but not reproducible. Different from
the decisions of artists like Agnes Martin or Georgia O'Keeffe to destroy their work, because the work itself enacts its subjection to decay. What a political statement to make: I do not care if this work endures, if the buyer gets his money's worth, if it can continue to circulate within a capitalist economy where art becomes a place to park your millions.
the decisions of artists like Agnes Martin or Georgia O'Keeffe to destroy their work, because the work itself enacts its subjection to decay. What a political statement to make: I do not care if this work endures, if the buyer gets his money's worth, if it can continue to circulate within a capitalist economy where art becomes a place to park your millions.
