SAMMLUNG MIGROS MUSEUM FÜR GEGENWARTSKUNST

«Pile of shit» by Robert Gober. Could be from any period. Gober collects his shit from one day, at random, when he feels like it, and shows it as work in a glass or porcelain dish. Could be dry or fresh. He calls it «the best work I’ve ever done» …
Curator’s notes: We now have proof that Robert Gober is human. Maybe he even likes/liked to be fucked in the ass by other males?? Ever since the famed relationships between Cy Twombly, John Cage, Frank O’Hara and Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg we have wondered what these men did in bed and tried to «out» them. Starting to wonder if it is a «white / Caucasian» thing… If we take the book, in any language, by Dominique Laporte «History of Shit» we can begin to formulate all kinds of interpretative reactions and interactions with Gober’s performative gesture. Especially if we mix this with Guy Hocquenghem’s somewhat scatological bottom sex based theorizing. Linda M. Montano is right, «art after psychology, no matter what Kosuth said, is unalterably the art of the ‘case study’. Everything is as good as the next, Emilio Cruz has been trying to tell us for 60 years and race trumps gender and sexual orientation you know.» I hate the word ethnic or ethnicity in my case because I have a troubled relationship with my (reform, USA, MidWest) Jewish past. Wonder what Gober would think about this as he eats autumn leaves in Vermont?? Senga Nengudi refers to shit and organic structures and therefore we know she is human. This is a good prerequisite for art, blood and guts in high school. Here are some quotes from His Divine Grace A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: his book «The Perfection of Yoga» … I am pure spirit – I am not this matter. When the yogi, by practice of yoga, disciplines his mental activities and becomes situated in Transcendence – devoid of all material desires – he is said have attained yoga. (I wonder if he is talking about a healthy developed ego?) One who truly understands «I am not this body» will actually reduce his bodily necessities to a minimum. The material energy is trying to entrap the conditioned soul as much as  possible, … I think Gober’s work is crap and dishonest and I don’t care of he’s gay. Lorraine O’Grady said that it became almost impossible to criticize within the African American community. Kara Walker doesn’t do it right either. Gober is sincere, I am sure, otherwise he would have never paid attention to the painter Joan Semmel, a fantastic artist in her own right … but Gober does not give us enough of his personal life I would have to meet him to understand the work. A good, real artist can give of their personal life … Johns and Rauschenberg et. al. finished the generation when this sort of closeting was acceptable and even logical. Warhol was a flop too by the way. I am pissed because it is obvious that unlike so many before him, Gober has potential as a real sex positive feminist queer artist, we just need A LITTLE MORE!

Sands Murray-Wassink

(*1974) is an American artist who lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands since 1994. He acquired his formal education in several schools and institutes in USA and Italy, and finalized it at the Rietveld Academy and the De Ateliers in Amsterdam 1996. He has taken part in several teachings, commissions and internships and has realized over 30 solo and group exhibitions and over 20 performances and projects in Europe and the USA. Sands has gained 4 prominent awards and has been nominated for 2 more. He questions the role of the artist, how one is «supposed« to act and interact with his/her environment while undermining taboos surrounding the gay, male body and its sexuality.

top