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Hi Laura,
Good points. You're right that Tim Jeeves might
possibly be McGowan's "ironic" publicist, though he
sounded way too pissed off about the piece for me to
believe he's complicit in it. I liked his effective
use of the F-word, though: it's hard to incorporate
that word into everyday postings, yet he did so
with grace and style. :)
I also agree with you that you can be conscious that
you're doing something unsound, as opposed to being
oblivious about it, or in denial. That's perhaps
what IS rather interesting and deeply unsettling
about McGowan's works: he makes visible what we
would prefer to leave invisible, and forces us to
really "see" it. If I walked around NYU, I bet I
could find plenty of broken/running faucets,
toilets, etc... it's just that no one has bothered
to do a "performance" about those items, inviting
people to come in and have a look.
Also, people COULD plausibly "intervene" in
McGowan's piece by shutting the water off, or
kicking his ass, other whatever. There's always a
way to "shut down" a performance that offends you,
and usually it just takes a word or a call to the
police, or a call to the Environmental Protection
Agency. (Well, that is being totally optimistic, but
seriously: why can't visitors to the gallery just
turn off the water)?
The Prozac/Zanax thing is also really troubling. I
know many people on meds who don't even know why
they're taking them, and don't want to ask their
doctors why. They just do what they're told, even if
the medication actually makes them more anxious.
I think that's a problem in itself: doing what
you're told without asking why. It's a political
problem as well as a health problem, because if you
can take a pill without questioning why you need to
take it, then you can also vote for a resolution
without questioning what's at stake, or defraud
investors without questioning why you're shredding
documents, or jump off a bridge, or kill someone.
That's a little extreme, I know. But I think it's
true that if more people just realized that pills
don't take your anxiety away, then maybe they would
accept anxiety as a "normal" part of life. If I
thought pills could cure me of my anxiety, I'd be
the first one in line...
Anyhow, have I got a Performance scandal for you!
It's about 9-11, though I don't know if the link is
up yet in the tabloids. I have a hard copy of the
newspaper, but don't really feel like typing it out
tonight. It's really great though: I am dying to
know what others think of it. I'll see if I can find
a link and post it here.
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