Monthly Statement:
March 2006

OBJECT # 26
DATE SENT: March 31, 2006
SENT TO: Judy Greco
SENT VIA: Hand Delivered

DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT: 36 11” x 14” gelatin silver photographs mounted (archivally glued) on 89”x107” canvas. The canvas has been painted flat gray in the spaces surrounding the photographs, covering all areas except the very top 2 inches. The paint has been thickened and there is a fair amount of texture. Over the gray paint in the horizontal spaces between the rows of photographs, white, all capital, stenciled letters have been painted. Each letter is 3” high. The words, which are a transcript of a dream I had, are as follows:

YOU & I ARE DRIVING ALONG THE FLORIDA COAST. WE SEE A SCHOOL
BUS THAT HAS BEEN RAMMED, LYING IN SHALLOW WATER BY A BRIDGE WITH DEAD BODIES ALL AROUND. WE MAKE A U-TURN & GET OUT OF
THE CAR TO ASK IF WE CAN HELP. A MEDIC SAYS “NO, EVERYTHING HAS BEEN DONE”. A FAMILY WITH PIG FACES IS CARRIED AWAY BY STRETCHER STACKED ONE ON TOP OF ANOTHER, COVERED BY A PLASTIC SHEET.

THEY ARE ALL DEAD. WE LEAVE AND I WONDER IF I’VE BEEN INFECTED.
Some of the photographs have been bent. Number’s 3, 9, 27, 33 have a vertical crack 2 1/2” in from the left side and running from the top to the bottom of the print and a couple are torn. There are cracks in many of the other photographs. The photographs were all taken with a 35mm Olympus XA, my camera of choice from 1981-2000, using Ilford FP4 film. Many of these particular photographs were made when I was working as a sales representative for Writers & Books (see d-acum 17 shipping label) and was traveling along the east coast from Boston through Washington, D.C. and on to Virginia.

A brief description of the photographs, starting with the top left and proceeding to the right and then to the next line follows:

Beach and sea shore at Virginia Beach, VA
Store front window with posted papers and tile floor interior
Dolls leg on sidewalk, Rochester, NY
Fake waterfall inside Chinese restaurant, Rochester, NY
Domino piece (six, six) on ground (partial emulsion torn away)
Torn emulsion photograph (was car radio antenna, bird in sky, trees)
Clouds from above during air landing
My father reviewing map as I leave for Philadelphia, from North Bergen, NJ
The number 37 on a grass field
My feet and Maryann Bez‘s friend’s feet, Virginia Beach, VA
Road from interior of rental car
The back of Maryann Bez and her friend’s head, Virginia Beach, VA
Clouds and Maryann Bez‘s profile, Virginia Beach, VA
Discarded carpet and branch on lawn, Rochester, NY
Coral, Harvard Museum, Cambridge, MA
Driftwood, Virginia Beach, VA
Military jets in sky, Virginia Beach, VA
Xerox of Jamie & Janet Hart’s newborn on a chair, Rochester, NY
Stand of trees along NY Thruway
Burnt out roadside flares
People swimming in Lake Ontario, NY
Leg stepping onto lawn, Rochester, NY
Runway lights, Newark Airport, NJ
Tree roots
Rainfall and trees from moving car interior
Hangars on restaurant floor of coat check, Boston, MA
Baby blanket on chair, Rochester, NY
Rock on string and piece of paper on grass, Rochester, NY
Driftwood and wash-up, Virginia Beach, VA
Small head and clouds, Virginia Beach, VA
Flowering Bush
People swimming in Lake Ontario, NY
Front garden covering, Rochester, NY
Plastic jack-o-lantern on sand, Lake Ontario, NY
Burning flares on roadside
People swimming in Lake Ontario, NY
The gray paint encroaches over the photographs in an un-directed manner, though not sloppy. The canvas is creased and the back is soiled and has some footprints. The are many lose strands of canvas

ORIGIN AND APPROXIMATE DATE OF POSSESSION OF OBJECT: Canvas purchased at Siperstein’s Paint Supplies, Jersey City, NJ. Photographs were printed in my home darkroom and piece was then assembled and painted in the workspace at my former apartment (24 West Hamilton Place, Jersey City, NJ 07302) in 1986.

MOST RECENT LOCATION OF OBJECT: On a shelf in my storage area that is part of the entire studio space that I, along with my studio mates, occupy. My storage area is in the southeast corner of the studio. The shelf faces north.

RELATION OF OBJECT TO RECIPIENT: My cousin Judy told me many years ago how much she liked this particular work of mine. I told her that one day I would give it to her. I never thought much of the piece and, in fact, when I give slide lectures on my work, cite it and a few similar works as failed pieces. I mention that it led me to other work that is related and which, in my opinion, is much more successful and how it also led me to writing fiction. None-the-less, Judy found it very moving and told me she had just the place for it in her apartment. Judy has been to many of my exhibitions over the years, one of the few members of my family who has seen my work evolve. Judy and I are the eldest of sixteen cousins on my father’s side of the family, and I have known her, of course, all my life. Our lives have been very different in certain respects. She is a single mother with two grown children, who has devoted a great deal of her energy to their up-bringing, has had to work two or often three jobs to support her family, and who has lived in a slightly more suburban setting than I. I am married without children and relatively autonomous and have a fair amount of time to pursue my own interests. But we have both found our way to similar careers as educators and the pursuit of our own higher education. As far as I know Judy has never taken an art class or done any art herself –she teaches mathematics – but when she saw this piece in my apartment she was very struck by its combination of images and words describing a car crash with pigs. In fact, she felt as if it spoke to her in a particularly personal way. The intent of the piece was to provide images that connect in a non-narrative, non-linear manner with the literal description of a dream. I intended that the piece would provide a link between the unconscious suggestion of my dream, which was written onto the canvas, and the somewhat subconscious photographic record-taking. It was, as I’ve said, an unsuccessful project, although I’ve always thought the photographs on their own were quite evocative. Judy got it, I believe, so there was at least that success. I don’t know if she will be able to hang this piece now in her apartment since it is quite large. However, her having it in her possession will possibly give her a connection to the work that will influence her own subconscious. I fantasize it may unleash some psychic shift as she enters a new phase in her life (she has just been hired at a new teaching position, both her sons are well on their way to their own careers, and she has talked about moving to a beach area). And further, Judy’s perceptive insights and perseverance continually provides me and many others with consistent inspiration.

RESPONSE OF RECIPIENT:

DATE OF RESPONSE:

Process: My plan is to de-accumulate objects I now own during the course of the exhibition year. I will photograph the selected object then send the object with a letter to a person who has some relationship to the object or whom I think might be interested in the object. The letter will discuss the project and tell the receiver they can keep the object, destroy it, give it away, recycle it or anything else they choose. I will ask them to document it in the place they now have it and send their image and/or written description back to me of what they did with it and where it is. I plan on de-accumulating an average of one object per week. The new images/descriptions will be placed in a plastic folder and exhibited along with a photograph of the object as it was in my possession.