September 7 - 6 October 6, 2018
One of the many reported anecdotes about Diogenes the Cynic was his caveat that we should ‘think before we think’. That is, not step into any space of philosophical inquiry without first gathering the flayed skirts of our wits about us. That one should fully take stock of complacent tendencies, lazy habits of mind and general irregularities of the ego before one could have a structurally coherent thought about thinking. For thinking is always a departure and never an arrival and the heat produced can burn irreparable holes in one’s firmament. Holes from which horrible gases are wont to escape. And gases travel upwards which is why in order to understand a thing one should really stand under it. The metaphorical import of the word is effective. Standing under a thing allows you to appreciate its structural integrity from the ground upwards. Where is gravity defied? Where is it succumbed to? Does it float? For wit and beauty are two tributaries of the same current, just as bad jokes and hidden meanings are spawned in the same stagnant puddle. Think before you think, Diogenes never said this, but he should have, and it is still good practice. Examine your own expectations before you catch too much heat in the feedback loop of intention, expectation and reception that Guillemet’s works question. How should we invent ourselves as the audience of the work, how should we sidestep that satirical glass that catches us wondering what to think? Between a blueprint for our expectations and the content we expect to find, a contradiction is consecrated where cynicism becomes a kind of joy.... And just as there are no words for the surface, that is, (Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, John Ashbery) Leila Peacock
Images: Dienstgebäude, Centrik Izler (likeyounetwork) © 2018 DIENSTGEBÃUDE |
