Monthly Statement:
July 2006

OBJECT #42
DATE SENT: July 20, 2006
SENT TO: Jayne Anne Phillips
SENT VIA: US Postal Service

DESCRIPTION OF OBJECT: 10 3/4” x 7 7/8” torn-out sheet from the New Yorker magazine. The page is the table of contents from the magazine and its publication date is March 26, 2001. The page number is 6. There is an advertisement for a book titled MotherKind by Jayne Anne Phillips, and it has a picture of her at the top of the column beneath her name. It is followed by an illustration of the book and then two quotes from reviews of the book. The first reads: “A beautiful and moving work of fiction that celebrates the sacredness of ordinary life” – Chicago Tribune. The second reads: “Pitch-perfect … Too few books touch on the ferocity of women’s lives… MotherKind is the rare one that tells the truth.” – Detroit Free Press. Information below the quotes advertises to other books written by the author. This ad is almost as long as the height of the page. Its width is 2 1/4” and is bordered in heavy black. On the other side of the page is a list of the magazine’s contents. Under an illustration of a man in a top hat looking through a monocle at a butterfly are the words THE NEW YORKER, underlined, and then the date March 26, 2001. Below that is a list of the cultural listings, editorial columns, articles, photographs, fiction piece, reviews, poems, and illustrations to be found in the magazine. Beside the cultural listings titled GOINGS ON ABOUT TOWN, and the editorial comments titled THE TALK OF THE TOWN, both printed in red, there are seven (7) individual articles. One of the articles includes photographs. The photographer’s name is Robert Polidori. The fiction piece, titled “The Guardians” was written by John Updike. Under the heading “THE CRITICS” which is printed in red are five reviews on books, cinema, dance, and theater. Under the heading POEM, printed in red is the title “Thanked Be Fortune” written by Eavan Boland. It appears on page 42. The bottom of the page lists the illustrations on the COVER, THE BACK PAGE, and DRAWINGS (all printed in red), which refers to the cartoons in the magazine. There are two illustrations. Under DRAWINGS are listed fifteen names. The last printed information printed is www.newyorker.com.

The other side of the sheet is a text-only advertisement for the U.S. Trust Company, which is an investment and banking corporation. The text of the ad is headed with the words: ADMIT IT, YOU’RE RICH. There are two columns of text describing the qualities of being rich and how the U.S. Trust Company might help with investments.

The sheet is yellowed slightly from age and exposure to light. One side of the sheet is slightly ragged due to it being torn from the magazine.

ORIGIN AND APPROXIMATE DATE OF POSSESSION OF OBJECT: Received in the mail at my studio (300 Observer Highway, Hoboken, NJ 07030) on approximately March 20, 2001.

MOST RECENT LOCATION OF OBJECT: In a cardboard box on a metal bookshelf that is to the left of the door inside my studio. The door is against the north wall of my studio and near the eastern corner.

RELATION OF OBJECT TO RECIPIENT: Jayne Anne Phillips gave a reading at Writers and Books in Rochester, New York (see d-acum 17 shipping label) in approximately 1982 when I was employed there. I met her then, though don’t specifically remember the interaction. Most likely we, along with many others, went to dinner together at the Chinese restaurant on Clinton Avenue, down the street from the bookstore. She read from her book “Black Tickets”, a book that I read prior to her reading, and thought was spectacular, moving, evocative, complex, and inspirational. I never read anything else by her after that and I never met Jayne Anne again. Twenty four years later, in the summer of 2006, I decided to pursue an MFA degree in Creative Writing, to formalize and further enhance the fiction writing I have been engaged with since 1994. I applied to five different schools, all in New York City. Sometime in the spring of 2007, I saw an ad in the publication Poets and Writers for a new MFA program at Rutgers University in Newark. I was drawn to it specifically because Jayne Anne Phillips was heading it. I wrote her an email of inquiry and was encouraged by her to apply, which I did. I was accepted to the program. After some debate and a number pf phone calls and emails to Jayne Anne, I accepted Rutgers offer, believing it will be the best program for me in many ways. I will begin studies in September, during a sabbatical from my job.

About two weeks ago, I was looking through the above-mentioned cardboard box. I saw the photograph of Jayne Anne peeking out from other papers. I recognized the picture immediately since it is the same photograph of Jayne Anne that appears on Rutgers Creative Writing web site. I pulled the sheet out from the rest of the other papers and was further surprised to see the date, which was when I was last on sabbatical from my job. I do not know what caused me to pull this sheet from the rest of the New Yorker in 2001. I am certain it was not the advertisement for the book, and I don’t think it was because of the advertisement for the investment company. In fact, I have no recollection why I did it at all. The more interesting aspect is that I would find it now, as I am preparing to re-meet Jayne Anne, and more importantly, to study with her. The synchronicity of this event is obvious, curious, and precisely the type of confluence of events that I hope to be attentive to as a writer and reader. There is no significance, I believe, unless it is named. And words are what give things their names, and, in a larger sense, their meaning. I anticipate Jayne Anne Phillips will have an impact on me as I attempt to find those precise words and mine what I’ve felt is an interior dialogue that has long existed.

One further curious note. As I began writing the description above, I noticed one of the authors listed on the table of contents. He is Michael Lesy and the article he wrote was listed under ‘SHOWCASE’ and titled “Walker Evans on the Web”. Coincidentally, Michael taught a course at the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York. I attended that school from 1977 through 1980, receiving an MFA in Visual Studies. Michael taught the history of photography, and I took the course in September 1977, thirty years ago. It was a great class, which I remember vividly. I am betting there are other coincidences which I’ve yet to see or discover. And if there are not now, they may arise in the next thirty years.

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.