CLOSING RECEPTION FOR ULYSSES ATWHEN’S “HOARDER” EXHIBIT
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23RD, 7:00-10:00PM.
ARTIST TALK: 8:00PM
Ulysses Atwhen asks that most nauseating of questions “What is Art?”ad nauseaum. He can’t take a step out of the door in the morning without the inquiry “Is this Art?” dangling from his lips. Another step: “Ah, but here one confirms one’s deepest suspicious vis-à-vis the Dialectic!” And so on, throughout the day as it divides itself into smaller and more incomprehensible portions, Zeno-style. In response, what could he do but collect objects, alter them, surround himself with them, until forced to display them? “How much should a work of Art cost?” ask the gallerists, archivists, appraisers, artists, and public. Ulysses stapled money to canvas, lotto tickets to canvas, any marker of value. Did the answer come? But the exchange rate! You could always snap off a few bucks and go to the beach.
“One of the things that’s exciting about this show is I can finally do the idea that I had when I found the object. Make the work, document it, and then get rid of the object. Hoarder … it’s a kind of a joke, but like a lot of jokes it’s kind of serious. Hoarding is even recognized as a disease. It might be connected to obsessive compulsive disorder, it might not be, but it’s got its own designation now. There’s “Grey Gardens”-level, where it really becomes a problem, and there’re people who live cluttered lives, and it’s not like 50 cats or something. On another level, I don’t think that we as a culture go ‘oh, rich people are hoarders’. We don’t because they have nice things, but really the super wealthy are hoarders.”