Monday Show and Tell

My apologies for my blog neglect. We had friends in town from Rochester for Bruce's opening at the Benton Museum of Art at UConn. We had a lovely evening in Storrs, visited the new ICA, South End galleries, the PRC, and went out to eat (several times). Overall, it was a fun and jam-packed weekend.

We took our friends to hear Pelle Cass's gallery talk at the wonderful Gallery Kayafas on Saturday. As my friends are both trained philosophers, I thought that Pelle's blend of poetry, language, and theory-turned-on-its-head was sure to please. Pelle gave a great talk: funny, subversive, and absurd (of which I think we all need a good dose). I highly recommend you check out his other "poems" as well as his newest work, especially the crosshatching and shadow work. I showed Pelle's work 3 years ago at the PRC when he first started photographing after a hiatus of over 10 years. He just keeps getting better. I couldn't be prouder. I present you with one of his poems, an earlier one that goes with a different image, and one of my favorite photographs from his newest series.

From pellecass.com

SUBTRACT
Here is what I learned this week:

Things are linked and must add up,
or rather they always do,

even if you can't count them.
That's why there are rules:

everything needs an armature.
Think of a grammar without a language:

Grip o grop si lasky sop. A language
without semantics: The been run run,

sure the run, set, set, set.
A world without hair: O Daddy-O!

A sound without vibration: tang.
A word without a voice: sand. A hill

without dirt, ha! An island without sky: bottle.
Take flatness from paper: sculpture.

A rebus without meaning: "Enjoy Coca-Cola."
If you could subtract green from trees

you'd steal the simpleness from an apple.
You can't empty without transforming —

take sleep from night and you have endless days.
Take height from the sky and you bump your head

on the moon. Subtract feeling from the man
and you have an angry woman.

Take risk from love and you get marriage.
Take criss from cross and zig from zag,

take color from flowers, take
the last shudder from your body

and prepare the world for life without you.
— Pelle Cass