Breaking up without breaking - from Cheryl Penn

[Marie Wintzer]

 

You might have seen similar pieces by Cheryl on IUOMA blogs all around the world, but the thing is, each of those booklets is a truly unique piece of art. An exploration deep into the flow of ideas, an idea in its own right.

 

 

 

The book contains photographs of a large painting at various stages of the process, and a "real life" piece of it, materializing an idea that was birthed way upstream of today, framing it into the present. A strange feeling of literally holding a piece of idea in my hands.

 

 

The flow of this particular idea follows the line that goes from constructing, layering, building up, to de-constructing, breaking up, dissecting out. Something has been created with the purpose of being dismantled.
The painting shouts out "don't break me please", but its existence solely relies on fragmentation (although on one of Cheryl's pictures the word Don't is lying in the shadow so that the painting seems to be begging to be broken).
Which made me think, can one break up without breaking?

 

 

Find a way through. I am thrilled the piece I got contains the wonderful word FIND. Layered onto a map. This to me is an indication that the process of breaking up does not end here, with this piece of painting. There is more in it and more to it, but a different person is now taking over. Up to the recipient to dig deeper and continue with the fragmentation and the (re)search. And forward in the flow of ideas, perhaps the branching of a small-new river from a much larger one?
Thank you for this fab 1/28, Cheryl! I certainly would like to have as many "ideas whose time has come" as you do! But I know from experience that your ideas always lead to other ideas. Inspiration, I think. So, thank you!!

 

 

PS* unnecessary quote of the day from Unknown: A half-baked idea is okay as long as it's in the oven.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

[cheryl penn]

THERE!!!! not their!!

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

(if left unchecked)

[cheryl penn]

Hard one. Even in societies like Big Brother their are 'undergrounds' where ideas flourish and real life is lived. The killer of ideas will be complacency maybe?

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

** if left unchecked

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

[cheryl penn]

Ideas cant help themselves I dont think. They're like physical entities. They appear when least expected. The force their way through - I ABSOLUTELY trade in the medium of ideas - in Mail Art. And it has no financial reward.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

the implications are pretty clear:

when you begin commodifying abstract ideas, and folks begin seeing their thoughts come with dollar signs attached to them; you will see people close off their minds like they do their wallets; there will be no free exchange of information. everything will have a price tag. there will be no democracy left in the world; all will be consumers and producers. there will be no freedom. just slaves to the system.

[1cgqtuoblpeqc]

and that goes right up the copyright alley, dvs.

[De Villo Sloan]

"Confirms and denies its own nature" - that sure reads like Paul DeMans - any you start to get the feel for it - I think Blindness and Insight was a biggy.

 

I read something in a mainstream magazine that might be relevant to this discussion. Some art collectors now are no longer buying things like painting and sculpture. They are buying the artist's concepts - what I saw looked for all the world like a performance score - and creating the art themselves whenever they please. They're not purchasing the work; they're purchasing the idea. This involves conceptual art, so they tend to be performance-type things but do have objects.

 

I don't think you can have conceptual art without a body of theory, btw.