February 27, 2006

Earlier today, before i went out to Sing Sing, the writer Brian Gallagher who I met some time ago came on the radio and gave this account of his journey to find out about REVS- a graffiti artist who evaded the authorities for years by his particular style of tagging- where he would use a roller- and make these autobiographical writings in the subway system. a friend pointed out recentely a tag that he had done in SOHO and its on a building, so huge- that i almost thought it was a part of the building.

Anyhow, when i got to class the door was locked, and Slm- a new student who joined just two weeks ago was waiting outside with his paper. He seemed very excited about it. And I was standing there in the hallway, with all the men in green milling around me- this is actually when i feel most uncomfortable at the prison- is in this hallway- because there really are only prisoners surrounding you and I guess it makes me aware of what the guards feel, being so out numbered. I'm always at ease once I find the guys that I work with and they really make me feel so protected. In fact I know that they feel very protective over me and have expressed this- that they basically are better guards than the actual guards if it came down to me getting into some sort of scary situation. So anyhow, as i was waiting outside, Salam let me look at his paper- and I started to read it. "Oh! you're a real writer." As soon as I looked at it I blurted out even though it might have been a silly thing to say but there was something to it- a kind of drama- that was unlike the others' papers.

The other men had a tendency to turn in these very sterile third person accounts of ideas on art- expressing generalities in blanket expressions- regurgitating ideas that they had read somewhere and ultimately sounding, "academic" and "smart." which kind of gets to me because i really wish they didn't think that that's what it takes to impress me. If that's the reason they're doing this at all. Well, regardless, Salam said he wanted to read his whole paper to the class even when i had just said, maybe because of time reasons- he should pick a part to read. But he insisted- and I was fine with it, even though I was nervous about time.

Once class started, I asked the men who were there early if they had read my letter- and they all had. They had passed it around to one another and had discussed it amongst themselves. I'm becoming more aware of the fact that they talk about me- and they tell me this- and again this happened. Jay said, "Yes in fact what your letter made me realize is that Bush's question made you show us this whole other part of yourself and your ideas and it forced you into a place where it was apparent that the class was as much a give and take, where you were learning from us." and I replied, "its true- and indeed this became apparent to me from the first class where when i came in with my simple drawing assignments to show that Fischer guy (which made them laugh, because "That Fischer Guy" is actual like the equivalent of the President of The United States in Sing Sing- he's the warden) who I didn't think would have any idea about art and especially not if it was abstracted to conceptual ideas in any way.

I then did something- i got this idea when I was rereading their papers on the train ride up- that i would read just a paragraph or sentence from each of thier writings- without saying whose writing I was reading- and just read and let everything blend together- so no one would know whose was whose until they heard their own. It seemed to really have a great effect- once I started I was immediately aware that they were all perked up. I think too hearing my voice reading their own words might have been an interesting experience. But then after i finished Salam went ahead and read his and it was incredible.

He read it in this half talking, half incantation, half laughter, bantering way, almost as if he was so amused by it that it was making him laugh and at the same time feel self concious, but proud- really really proud. it was such an interesting mix of emotions and read with a tremendously loud voice- everyone was completely riveted, not just because of the style of his reading, but because he really captured through the images that he used, and through this incredible quotes by Picasso and other artists that he wove into it, the way that his art- his graffitti and his life were all interconnected and the elements of living in the neighborhood that he did and New York itself had led to his art. He ended it with "uh oh! I gotta sign off for now, I think I hear walkie talkies! 'ssst.sshclackty-clackss..clickOUT!!!!" So after writing this entire monologue, we're aware of the fact that he had actually written this on a wall in spray paint, and then he showed the class his final signature was his tag- below the computer print of his last paragraph.

I had to mention right then, my Brian's essay- about REVS, and afew of the guys had in fact heard of him, but i think they have all been in too long to have known him on the outside. Actually, after class when I was standing on the freezing cold train platform I called him to tell him that I really want them to read that piece and I hope he sends it to me so I can get it to them. I'll post it here too if he's ok with that.

Bush said that he himself had been continuing his writing even though he didn't yet have his 10 pages to share with the class- but I said, you don't have to share all 10 pages, I just wanted you to write them for yourself, but keep working on it if you haven't gotten there yet. I said to Salam, "you need to keep writing, Period." And he said, "this was my first time ever writing anything." And I said, "Well you need to keep writing."

After I read my cross section of different peoples' writings, I had a question about one, and I realized that he wasn't in the class, but I wondered aloud, why he felt the need to write the entire document as a quote. He wrote 3 pages and each paragraph was a big quote, but he never referenced the source- and it was clearly in his own voice. So I asked this question and Jay exclaimed, "Hey! You know I had that happen to me- I thought about my artistic self as a different person as me, and I thought about making up a character! I don't know why, but I realized that I could really write as this other person- so I know about that." And I was amazed because (actually the paper belonged to the other Jay) I don't know still why Jay wrote it as a quote, but it did make a lot of sense, and I felt the need then to say that sometimes having an alter-ego makes you really able to tap into things that you don't actually consciously want to reveal- and I said, you know, "Bush might not want to write this, but 'Michael' might, and so 'Michael' might reveal everything Bush needs to actually get out." And then Jay said something like, "yeah you know that person might not even be anything like you at all, but you can really speak through them." I brought up the assignment that I had given to my first class last summer where I brought in these turn of the century studio portraits for everyone to fictionalize or do whatever they wanted with them and everyone was really able to get into them, and even when we had our readings in class, it became clear that some of the guys who knew the backgrounds of eachother knew immediately that they were actually writing their own biographies through this character and these little babies couldn't be more different. ( I felt bad about what flew out of my mouth, but I said,"These little white children" as soon as i uttered the word "White" i felt like it sounded horrible and just really made me feel like I drew that separation between us ugh)

Anyhow, then we moved in to looking at another assignment ( to make 10 drawings without ever using a drawing tool such as pen, pencil etc.) by big J- and it blew me away. He made a series of 10 different unique pieces- all found objects and with such simplicity- one was a piece of paper with some twigs bundled together, no more than 3 inches in length, tied with white string--- it was breathtaking- and also another piece of paper- with a ring of wood from a branch- cut very roughly into two separate pieces... then amazingly another piece that looked like it could have been made by my friend BW! It was so close to something he had in fact done- a kind of abstracted grid with checkers and scrabble pieces--- and i actually did say this- that this was so reminiscent of my friends work!

I also said that he needed to see David Hammonds work.

And he had some other pieces, but most amazingly was these three cards, each creased in half and glued to a piece of paper- and all the men freaked out about it instantly-- and i didn't get it! And they all said, you don't know what that is/??? They had this exascerbated look- and were just so stunned-- But I really didn't immediately know what those three creased cards- face down symbolized- so Bush said, "3 Card Molly! Its this game you play on the street- its a gambling game really- you have to figure out what is under the cards and if you don't guess right you can lose all your money or you can even die if you mess up"

Jay went on to explain what each piece meant for him. And I almost wished that I didn't hear some of these things because there was a richness to them- although it doesn't matter because they were amazing- and it reflected back this other thing that he actually said- that you shouldn't always talk about your work because there are so many things that are happening with it that you force the viewer to see it in one way when you give that information. But anyhow, I was very impressed with the rigor with which he had specifically chosen all of these materials- for instance he chose to use the game pieces because he wanted to talk about the idea that you're playing a game and if you have more of certain pieces you win- so the grid actually had more red checkers than black. And the twigs tied up was a reflection of the idea that "the family that prays together stays together." There are also afew other pieces that were not as great I thought- and I this time said so- and I told him that I thought he could really experiment with sculpture- I then took his Three card Molly piece that was on the chalkboard and laid it down flat on the table and I said, what about this- and the other guys made this expression of "yeah!" and then Bush in particular said, "now all you need is a cardboard box to put it on and its really like the real thing." (God, how amazing I thought---- Bush is really envisioning something that is truly a remaking of this entire sidewalk stoop gambling experience and understanding that it can be completely ok in an art context its something that just would never have happened months ago--- I couldn't help feeling sooo happy when they were talking about this). I then expressed that we should really start thinking about the show in May.

I have talked to Katherine ( the woman who runs the theater program through which I was brought in to Sing Sing ) about having an exhibition of art in the theater area where the plays are held so that the outside visitors can see the art when the play is going on. I really am excited about it- and I want them to think along the lines of putting together a show- and we then talked about this- that the experience of really making something new to exhibit is important and will be the next assignment. I agreed to get the materials and I also threw a little ringer into it. I asked them if I could put something into the show as well. I like the idea of being in a show at Sing Sing and if they can't show their work outside I'll join them in art. I realized though, and later I called my friend Brian- that if I could organize a show of their work- something that would be really amazing would be an exhibition of work by Jay and Brian in a two person exhibition. I then thought that this could be an interesting approach to think about doing with other artists as well- and making really curated shows with works that might relate to eachother by artists on the outside. I have struggled with the idea of showing their work on the outside because it will just seem like its all about the idea of "prison" and I think this could make it much more powerful. But at the same time, I don't know if I can really do this for everyone in the class because it just really seems to work for J and B.

I asked if anyone else had done an assignement and Salam said that he started to, but he felt like it would have been "biting"-- and then he asked me if i knew what that meant! And i said, yes, ( but it made me realize that they really see me as a foreigner sometimes, and i guess i pretty much am- as a white female, college educated etc. I'm aware that its pretty offensive too, just coming from this position) --- But anyhow, I responded with pointing back at the comment he made about Picasso's quote- "If there's something to steal, I steal it." saying that you can bite anything but it actually forces you to prove that you can do it better!

I'm sitting at home right now reading two more papers that Jn and G handed me when I left class- and Jn’s is a story called, "The unknown Artist" and it described fully the inside of his performance with the torn up paper. He goes inside the brain of it- wow. I will also have to write this out. And G wrote a little one paragraph page with "PART OF MY ART PHILOSOPHY" as the title- his English is not very good (and I corrected some of the spelling of his words and word order here as I transcribe it) but its kind of an amazing paragraph because it seems he is writing in a defiant voice, "I may not be an artist physically, but I am mentally. This is not a decision that was created by some one else, or that was given to me. I had to make this decision on my own. Now being an artist is not easy, but it will take a lot of hard work if you want to see progress in your work. There are many men in my art class that I know can draw, but are they ready and willing to explore the different art world? I do not know, but for my self, yes I am willing to do that."

I think what he's talking about has to do with the fact that I have been introducing them more and more to conceptual art and explaining that you don't have to be an excellent drawer- but actually Gerald isn't bad. And I loved these drawings he made in response to my "still life" assignment, to draw something in your immediate surrounding- and he drew these wide angle views of three walls of his cell. Its really interesting what he says because I think he's right, about the men who can draw might not be willing to sacrifice that skill (if its seen as giving it up to enter into the "the different art world") to try something new. But that's not true- Juan did a performance and he is a really skilled renderer. But regardless- I'm really curious to know what he's thinking about doing..