Friday, February 29, 2008

Pënz Travels To NYC


Pënz and Ghada Amer's work from the show "Love Has No End"




Pënz and the Truck at Union Square



A close up...


So, I've been in NYC for about 36 hours now...almost, and have had the opportunity to drop Pënz in various places - even the subway. Today, on my way home, I saw this beautiful artist looking cat on the platform and had to go back and give him a Pënz - if you read this, sorry I didn't get your name, but I'm excited about your work.

And I've been thinking all day about performance as transgression. The transgression of social and institutional rules, relationships, spaces. A security guard was following me around the gallery for about 15 minutes when I turned to him and asked him if there was something wrong. He said he wanted to know if I(we) were enjoying the exhibit, and then disappeared. After he disappeared, I planted a Pënz against the column. And then, I dropped another one in the video viewing room for the "Dinner Party" piece. All in the dark and stuff.

Handing Pënz to a stranger feels kind of like inviting someone into something bigger than both of us. Trangressing expectations and boundaries. No pressure.

Let's see where Pënz and NYC meet tomorrow.

The Conceptualist

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