The Personal is Political. The Political is Personal.

 
progressing backwards

John Armleder's work often pleasantly confuses and eludes us (TiR has liked it best when it's made us think, "This artist may be quite the packrat at home"), but the following stopped us:

There are no settled definitions. Each move we make changes our tastes and ideas. Things look alike. If they don’t, step back, and they will. Step back again -- they won’t just look alike, they’ll actually be alike. Step back once more, and they’ll cease to be at all. This is where we ought to be, sometimes.

The above from his rather helpful or at least entertaining conversation with Fabrice Stroun in April 2011's ArtForum, which we've recently excavated from our piles of crap.

Then again, as Armleder too probably has learned, an overly focussed preoccupation with stepping back or recoiling away from one problem can result in tripping backwards over a new and different problem -- or the same one is a new disguise. This pratfall can be very comical. At least for those looking on. Unless you accidentally land on them.

posted by TiR at 7:01 AM