Just for something completely different – a Nietzsche quote

To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities – I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not – that one endures.

Time for a Nietzsche video

Idiot

As you may have gathered, I have a fondness for the word 'idiot'. I like the connotations derived from its etymology. According to Wikipedia, 'Idiot is a word derived from the Greek ἰδιώτης, idiōtēs ("person lacking professional skill," "a private citizen," "individual"), from ἴδιος, idios ("private," "one's own").'

In the same vein, Philip K Dick wrote some interesting things about the idiocosmos, a private world, something that features in many of his books.

Quote of the day

I was feeling a bit down the other day, so I read Jean-Paul Sartre's Age of reason to cheer myself up. It's set over a few days in the summer of 1938, and follows Mathieu, a philosophy teacher, who is trying to come up with 4000 francs to pay for an abortion for his mistress, so he doesn't have to marry her and give up his freedom. It's very funny, especially in the scene where he hits his brother up for the cash.

However, the best line has to be this gorgeous quote:

'I'm sitting in my chair, believing in nothing.'

Some process pics

NB If you click on the label Adam Art Gallery, you'll be able to see some other pics of the loos and read some blithering.

Werner Herzog's Rogue Film School

What a good idea!

I should've made a DVD this year. Damnit.

Oh yes

John Hurrell has reviewed the Adam show.

Quote of the day

Pluralism is the properly philosophical way of thinking, the one invented by philosophy; the only guarantor of freedom in the concrete spirit, the only principle of a violent atheism. The Gods are dead but they have died of laughing, on hearing one God claim to be the only one, 'Is not precisely this godliness, that there are gods but no God?'

– Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and philosophy

Recover

Yeah, the party at the Adam on Saturday was fun. I didn't quite manage to drink enough to pass out in the toilets, but I had a good go. I was hampered by the hangover from our flatmate's birthday do the night before.

I wore my suit to the party. Jeena made a very good case for ripping the 'most difficult' patch off the sleeve and giving it to her, the justice of which I could not deny. But I resisted. I was a little disappointed with the quality of the responses on the toilet wall. Writing 'I agree' next to 'David Cauchi is a crap artist' is a pretty pathetic effort, I reckon. I thought at least one person would get a good hit in. Pah!

Since Saturday, I've been trying to get over the Stockholm syndrome of the last couple of weeks and focus on what's coming up. I've got four writing projects to do in as many weeks. Three of them are for school, but one is for something else, and I'd like that one in particular to be okay.

I might put some photos I took of the other people installing their works up soon, but in the meantime there are some on the Adam website.

REMINDER: Party of the decade! Tomorrow night!

The Adam Art Gallery's 10th birthday party
Doors open 8pm
Performances by Bek Coogan, Torben Tilly, and Double Ya D
Bar closes 11pm
After Party: The Watusi, 6 Edward Street
Door charge $5 (proceeds going to support the artists)

Reflecting on the toilet

It was the last day of the install yesterday. For some reason, I am exhausted. I don't really have any justification for it, especially compared with Jeena! She has put in a massive effort. As an example of how tired I am, we went out for a celebratory drink last night, and I was the first to leave! I even turned down a beer!!! Maybe my brain's been taken over by an alien parasite.

I'm really happy with my work, and I think the show as a whole is looking pretty good. I've really enjoyed the whole experience. I was a little apprehensive about it, what with doing something for the first time in public and all. I was a little unsure what I'd do if it had turned into a disaster. However, it all went very smoothly.

I started out pencilling in things first, just in case, but soon abandoned that and attacked the walls directly with my pen. The green toilet is mostly text, and I'm pretty sure I didn't make any spelling mistakes or skip any words. There is only one small smudge. There are a couple of places where I'd've liked to've shifted the placement slightly, but I'm not worried about that. They're minor.

Yesterday was funny. Faced with having to finish it, I got all nervous again and started second guessing myself. But in the end, after a bit of discussion, I just stopped, and a good move that was. I would've been the second to finish, but when we were having pizza and beer in the gallery in the evening someone made a comment that turned into the perfect finishing touch, so I was last.

Easily the best thing about the whole experience has been how social it's been. Someone called it art camp. We've all got on very well. No prima donnas and no standoffishness. If any of you are reading this, remember we've got a spare room if you need somewhere in Wellington to stay.

A crap replacement

Fuck off.

Crit week

It's crit week at Massey this week. They've been making a big deal of this, and saying it should be our top priority. They've even got people from outside Massey to come along and take part.

I thought I'd jacked up taking people up to the Adam for mine, but it fell through at the last moment for not very convincing reasons. I'm not very happy about it at all. Instead I showed working drawings in my studio and tried to describe what I'm doing. It was very unsatisfactory. The only good thing to come out of it was that I got a gratifyingly hostile response from one person. He seemed genuinely angry. He also came out with the classic quote 'You have nothing to say except nihilism!' Brilliant! That's going on the wall.

I'm really surprised that going elsewhere to look at a site-specific work was such a hassle in the first place. I thought they'd be used to it and be able to take it in their stride. But no, it seems they can only handle traditional studio-based work. It's been a whole lot of palaver trying to organise it, and then to have the kaibosh put on it at the last minute... No sir, I'm not happy. What a waste of time.

Arseholes

What you are looking at here used to be a tribute to Ian Curtis and an important part of Wellington's heritage. I can remember when it first appeared. Considering all the changes to Wellington since the early 80s, it's been a nice bit of continuity.

It's been there (sort of) since soon after Curtis died, and some stupid cunt from the council has painted it over. Fucking petty officials and their narrow minds. They should be ashamed of themselves but no doubt lack the imagination to do so. Using my intertemporal avant-garde art powers, I have put a black magic curse on them.

If you look closely, you can see what was there: 'Ian Curtis 1960–1980 [sic] RIP Walk in silence'. It's even mentioned on Curtis's wikipedia page.

I am fairly confident it will reappear.

No more pics

I'm not going to put any more pics until the show is over. You don't want to have seen it all before you visit. Though as Rose said when she came up for a look today, it is quite different seeing it in the flesh than as pictures on the blog.

I reckon it's coming along nicely. I have a crit on Monday, and I'm bringing people up to the Adam for it. It'll be interesting to see what they make of it.

Some more pics

I had quite a slow day today. The room is beginning to fill up, and I have to think about placement a lot more than when it was empty (and that could be my mistake right there). I want this room to be completely full, unlike the other one, which I'm quite happy to leave quite sparse. Anyway, here are the pics:

More fun in the loos

I spent Wednesday at school. When I headed back up to the Adam this morning, I found this on the door to the stuff I'd already done:

I've been enjoying myself immensely. I've been getting good reactions to what I'm doing. The people at the Adam are extremely friendly and helpful, and the other artists are all good value. Here are today's efforts:













Oh yeah, also check out Paints after work. No prizes for guessing who the 'About me' section on it takes the piss of.

Fun in the loos

Yeah, so I'm not a very good photographer. Good thing too. If you want to see it properly, you'll have to go to the Adam. It opened to the public yesterday.

(The first version of this post was a bit sweary. What was meant to be a vigorous exhortation to go up to the Adam came across as unnecessarily abusive. Well, I was pretty drunk.)

Speaking of unnecessary abuse, I was standing at the bus stop to go up there yesterday. Some random stranger at the bus stop pointed to the cigarette in my hand and said 'That's why you're dying of cancer.' I answered with a cheery 'Hopefully!' He said, 'You should treat your body like a temple.' I said, 'Ha! The opposite more like.' Then he started abusing me, so I abused him back. I think I won.

However, that's not a contender for quote of the day. One tour party of little old ladies checked out what I was doing. One of them said, 'If I had that in my bathroom, I'd never be constipated again.' I didn't have an answer to that.

Runner up goes to Kim Pieters: 'Wellington people are like Dunedin people, only happier.'