Hense - 700 Delaware (2012) - Mural on abandoned church
I WANT TO MAKE THAT CHURCH NOT ABANDONED AND WORK IN IT NOW
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Untitled (Perfect Lovers), 1987-1990
Wall clocks, 35.6 x 71.2 x 7 cm overallGonzales-Torres’s iconic work “Untitled” (Perfect Lovers) is a pair of identically round, ready-made wall clocks, with their batteries synchronized to the same time upon installation. Although their synchronous movement seems interminable, the clocks eventually fall out of sync due to the mechanical glitches, and one clock ultimately expires before the other. Considering the artist’s relationship with his lifelong partner, Ross, who battled with AIDS for most of the 8 years they were together, every minute and second of time resonates with exceptional poignancy. At the same time, the ordinariness of the clocks does not readily reveal the subtle references contained within. The paired clocks not only symbolize the couple’s love, life and death, but their identical shapes also allude to homosexuality, expressing the artist’s subtle yet powerful statement against social prejudice.
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God Went To Beauty School, by Cynthia Rylant
—
He went there to learn how
to give a good perm
and ended up just crazy
about nails
so He opened up His own shop.
“Nails by Jim” He called it.
He was afraid to call it
Nails by God.
He was sure people would
think he was being
disrespectful and using
His own name in vain
and nobody would tip.
He got into nails, of course,
because He’d always loved
hands -
hands were some of the best things
He’d ever done
and this way He could just
hold one in His
and admire those delicate
bones just above the knuckles,
delicate as a birds’ wings,
and after He’d done that
awhile,
He could paint all the nails
any color He wanted,
then say,
“Beautiful,”
and mean it.
On Saturday I got back from spending a week as a camp counselor at a truly amazing camp. I want to tell you guys about it, but I’m afraid that I’m not quite ready yet. Maybe I’ll tell you later, once I’ve processed it some more.
But for now all I can say is that I told a high school girl that she was intelligent, beautiful, and passionate, and that she should never change anything about herself, for anyone, ever. I told her that although she may not feel like it now, she is perfect, and she will meet people who will see her as just that…perfect…just as God already does.
If the only thing that comes out of that week is that one single girl believing that one single statement, then it will have all been worth it.
“Life is so full of unpredictable beauty and strange surprises. Sometimes that beauty is too much for me to handle. Do you know that feeling? When something is just too beautiful? When someone says something or writes something or plays something that moves you to the point of tears, maybe even changes you.”
― Mark Oliver Everett, Things The Grandchildren Should Know
