Diane Keys: DeConstruction / ReConstruction

[David Stafford]

Just got back from Diane Keys new show at the Elgin Museum of Modern Art (EMOMA). Wild stuff. I was surprised to see my name in the Catalogue:

Keys continues to burrow into the layer of duff on the urban floor, a sediment rich with meaning "para aquellos con los ojos." (Trans.: For those with the prescience to find the vision of seeing in all its fermented glory)

However, here she has taken a different tack. She creates an imaginary schnook named David Stafford and then, in the parlance of the web, does a "Googlestalk" on him and finds the doppelganger has "apped out." In a nutshell: the Schnook comes to life, if only in the pathetic pixel clippings from his Google searches. It is this Gogolian Construction that Keys is blowing the breath of life into. An act of wizardry that involves pathos, bathos as well as Harpos and Grouchos.

The show at EMOMA was coordinated with an adjunctive show at the SmartArtMart Gallery which featured photographs of the entire DKULT gang at the infamous "CLUBHOUSE." More like pages from a scrapbook than serious photos but telling nonetheless and of course, great fun to see the big cheeses of the DKULT world when they were still little Baby Bells.

[Neil Gordon]

Yeah! Stymied art critics and sticky fingers! Where mick jagger when we need him??? I am assuming the sticky fingers you talk of are from glue sticks and trashpo....

[David Stafford]

Happy New Year, Neil. Here's to another year of stymied art critics and sticky fingers.

[Neil Gordon]

I here the EMOMA piece was censored on its review on NPR, Art critics are stymied... Much intrigue, mayhem, good ole art and fun on this blog post!!!! Have a "slack" new year!

[David Stafford]

My own book on Vizma's thongs comes out in May. Here's an excerpt.

He pulled the thong over his head and went into the bank. The security guard looked up briefly and said, "Your thong's on backwards." Unperturbed he walked up the teller and made his demand, "Put all the cash into this bag." But when he reached for the bag in his coat pocket he pulled out yet another thong. The teller tried to be understanding, "You want me to put the money in your thong?" He nodded slowly and she began to put a large stack of bills into the flimsy garment. "Oh, I like this color better," she said as she tied up the cash with the sparkling spandex. "There you go. Anything else I can help you with?"

[De Villo Sloan]

Church of the SubGenius controversy[edit]

According to two accounts by Black, he received a bomb in the mail at his street address on November 22, 1989.^[4] Black claimed it was a member of the Church of the SubGenius, John Hagen-Brenner, who sent him an "improvised explosive device consisting of an audio cassette holder wired with four cadmium-type batteries, four flashbulbs, and five firecrackers",^[5] as described in the charging document filed in Federal District Court. According to Black, he thought the package looked suspicious, then on impulse "threw it against the wall. There was a flash (the flashcubes) and a puff of smoke, but the firecrackers did not go off."^[5] Black turned the device in to the police. Black believes that the device was sent to him because of criticism he had made of the Church, and he has repeatedly brought up the incident in his writings concerning the Church.^[4] Ivan Stang and other members of the Church have denied any involvement in this incident, and no one else was charged. One of Black's texts was reposted and dismissed on the SubGenius mailing-list.^[6]

[De Villo Sloan]

KDJ founded the I'm Enchanted with David Fan Club. That gives him a pass with DKulters even though the kult has been the object of many satires. Vizma is recent. She is a kulter.

I have seen a parallel with the controversy involving Bob Black and the Church of the Subgenius (because it started as a mail-art church.) Did the church attempt to "blow up" Bob? You can find it documented in Wik. if you scroll down in the entry you can find it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Black

Possibly this was a hoax. My own experience concerning the paralysis of my left finger as the result of mail received from a kulter could be similar. I don't think it was intentional.

These are different times. David's satires concerning DK and other kulters seems to be tolerated.

[DKeys]

you're right David. Digital pix don't get printed as much and definately aren't as good of quality.  the only people who will have archives of who we are is Google and Facebook and maybe a few other knockoffs. 

DVS it is flarf.  i was experimenting with 'google stalking' to compile a portrait of someone. Dave Stafford UK doesn't talk to me since he posted on youtube -even though he wrote an entire novel about Vizma's thongs, so I did DavID stafford USA and JB I think.

[David Stafford]

Savor those pics, Diane because the thrift stores of the future will be snapshot free zones. We're going to have sift through mountains of pixels to figure out who we were. And we'll probably wind up getting everything wrong like the scientists in Sleeper.

[De Villo Sloan]

I think that's Flarf.

[DKeys]

I just used a wedding photo from this same album==very 70s  It would be so interesting to know how things turned out for them.  And how did their wedding photos end up in a thrift store  ? the answer can not be good