an end seems very finite
an end seems very finite - rotating wooden plinth assembled with carved wooden sculpture, x-ray film holders, photographs, plastic sheeting. Solo exhibition at Cathedral Cabinet, Nicholas Building, 2019. Curated by Caspar Connolly.
They want to be an artist.
And nothing I say will help.
This pen makes me want to write. I got it for free at a Japanese garden viewing. I read Caspar’s text tonight.
It doesn’t say anything about the work in the exhibition.
Did I expect it to? Yes.
How much of my life is built upon useless expectations.
I expect to be a mid-career artist by the time I’m 50, at least.
That is, if I keep up my work life balance, and maintain the right level of irony.
What does it mean to be an artist who can’t draw?
Some would say it means you are destined to be a photographer. Well I do that on the side.
But I also fiddle around with found things. I arrange them in certain ways that make my stomach turn.
That’s the feeling I’m looking for, ultimately.
An anxious feeling, an emptiness, loss.
It’s something about the turning. The turning of a door handle, turning around a chair.
Turning your head to look at someone you love. The moment the turn happens, it’s already gone.
That turn could never happen again, even if you expect it to.
Nothing in this universe is permanent.
That’s why I like it when you walk past a shop window with plastic on it and you know something is happening inside.
Renovations, a face-lift, new tenants, change.
The big reveal of what lies behind the plastic could be like the opening of an art exhibition.
People scatter from near and far to support you. It’s beautiful.
They expect to see progress in your work, perhaps more of what you did last time - but a little different. Better, even.
People expect you to become more like you.
If life comes, this is life.
If death comes, this is death.
There is no reason for your being under their control.
List of imagery:
1. Video Documentation of ‘an end seems very finite,’ rotating wooden plinth with carved wooden sculpture, x-ray film holders, photographs, plastic sheeting, dimensions variable, exhibited at Cathedral Cabinet, 2018.
2. Photo Documentation of ‘an end seems very finite,’ rotating wooden plinth with carved wooden sculpture, x-ray film holders, photographs, plastic sheeting, dimensions variable, exhibited at Cathedral Cabinet, 2018.
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© Lucy Foster. Living and working between Naarm (Melbourne) and Dja Dja Wurrung Country (Castlemaine) on unceded land belonging to the Wurundjeri and Jaara Jaara people of the Kulin Nation.
