Anodyne
Saturday, March 17, 2007
 
Farewell to an Idea

Someone writes to ask where and when the photographs are going to be shown. I don't know and don't particularly care; I'm more interested in making them, and in trying to figure out which ones are good, which ones are less good, and why. This seems to me the foundation of any artistic praxis. I published my first paid writing when I was nineteen or twenty, but had been writing steadily since age five or six. So, using that timeline as a guide, "some time in late fall 2021." Which sounds really strange on the face of it. But in general, I think a long time horizon is a useful thing. Warren Buffett talks about investing like a punchcard with twenty squares on it. Once you've punched all twenty, you're done: no more investing for life. So imagine a one-man (or woman) show in October 2021. What would be in it? What would you make in the interval if you knew that whatever you did could not be exhibited, purchased, written about or publicly admired/reviled for fourteen or fifteen years? Or, alternately, if you knew that you could only show fifty, thirty, or even ten artworks in your lifetime? (Goodbye, ghosts, goodbye). I think your work could not help but improve as you came to fear your own judgement more than the crowd's.
- posted by cjb @ 7:00 PM


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