The Estheticist is a monthly, free visual arts advice service. To submit a question, write to estheticist [at] aol.com.  Questions may be published as part of this montly blog. All questions will be answered and treated anonymously.

Dear Estheticist,

As artists we have the privilege of offering our colleagues artworks in exchange. Are there any unspoken rules about artists bartering pieces? For instance, shall this works have dedication? Or is it right to sell a piece which was acquired in a friendly exchange? Thank you for your advice.

Anonymous Artist, Mexico City

Dear Anonymous Artist,

Exchanging pieces amongst artist colleagues is a wonderful practice. To propose an exchange, however, has to be done carefully and with tact. For an artist to propose a trade with a more successful  — or expensive, for that matter —artist, would be presumptuous and would place the more successful artist in an uncomfortable situation. Artists at the same level can certainly and freely propose trades to each other, but the interest in each other’s works must be clearly mutual as well as the recognition that both are at the same level (which is actually hard to do as most artists have a slightly more aggrandized vision of where they are placed reputation-wise in relation to others). The best opportunity to propose a trade most typically emerges when an artist that one admires expresses a lot of interest for a particular work of yours; it is then perfectly reasonable to suggest a trade. One should not be picky either: to demand a particular work from the collection of that artist would tarnish the exchange.  Regarding dedication: unless the dedication is considered as intricate part of the work (and some conceptual works are that way), in general to visibly dedicate the piece to someone else (say, an editioned photograph) would likely diminish the value of the work when this one may be passed down to posterity — it certainly would be of less interest to a museum unless both donor and recipient would become historically famous ( and let’s not kid ourselves that we will be, say, Matisse giving a gift to Picasso). And regarding sales: it is not appropriate to sell a work that one has acquired through an exchange of this kind. When one enters into such a trade, the implicit understanding is that admiration to each other, not monetary gain, is the reason of the contract. To choose to sell a work that one received this way is to admit that the admiration that one may have toward that artist is not as great as your desire (or need) to cash in.  Regardless of how desperate one may be for the money, the gesture of this artist will not be seen favorably amongst those around him/her, will likely offend the author of the piece, and will likely prevent others from trading with this artist in the future.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

I am an artist who has been around for a while so I am reasonably well-known and connected in the art world. Also as a result, many younger (and not so young) artists ask me for letters of recommendation for grants and residencies. While I want to help them, writing these recommendations is way too time consuming, I am a slow writer, and sometimes I am just overwhelmed by the amount of requests that I get. Moreover, there is one person in particular who every year asks me to write a recommendation for something and  I am just fed up with it. How can I let this person as well as others know that I am not endlessly available to write letters without sounding rude?

Tired Recommender

Dear Tired Recommender,

This is a very common problem, but it is not difficult to address. You, however, will have to learn how to say no.  One way to do it is to set your seasonal limit (say, three letters) and award those letters to those artists who you consider more worthy. It is perfectly fine to tell others, nicely but firmly, that while you would love to help them you are simply unable to write a decent recommendation because of lack of time. And regarding the artist who constantly solicits you, you should have no qualms in telling him/her that you will have to give the opportunity to others instead than to the same person. Needless to say, not everyone may be so understanding to your negative, but I would be that those same people will also likely be those who don’t understand the meaning of boundaries anyway.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

I was a photojournalist for many years, until I became disenchanted with the profession. Disenchantment was followed by an identity crisis, followed by a revelation; I wanted to become a full-time artist. I’ve been dabbling in drawing, painting, collage and conceptual photography for many years now, but kept these activities as a private, personal joy. I live in an art world capital with a thriving art scene and I’m thinking of taking some courses here and there, start going to vernissages and mingle, make some connections and start making art (and hopefully a name for myself). The thing is, I’m 37 years old and I never had any art related training whatsoever, which gives me extreme insecurity; I’m just not confident of my skills or my work. I’m reluctant to pursue an arts degree now, as I believe I’ve wasted so much time (I’m kicking myself for not having this revelation when I was 18 or 20 years old). I have a constant fear of not having enough time at this point in my life to develop a successful career as an artist. What should I do? Should I invest five (or more) years studying and then try to start when I’m 42 or older? Or should I trust that a few courses and good connections will help both my skills and my confidence?

Thanks!

Mid-Life Art Crisis Artist

Dear Mid-Life Crisis Artist,

You seem to be able to assess your situation with great frankness and objectivity; that in itself puts you in an advantage in relation to others who, even if they decided to become artists before you, would benefit from feeling a bit more insecure about their talent. Secondly, I think you have correctly guessed that it is not a good idea to make art in a vacuum. Although we still hold the romantic notion that an artist may make art in secret and one day be discovered after death (e. g. Henry Darger), the reality is that contemporary art is as much the result of the perseverance of one’s vision as the product of the dialogue between artists, between generations, between world views.  So it is of utmost importance for you to place yourself within a community of artists. Attending some sort of art program, classes, residencies, and even art school would be indeed very beneficial for you, to see how others think, solve similar problems, how they articulate their work toward others, and how you share or differ in your views on art.  Do not worry about your age: while it is true that you will not have the same learning arch of a 20-something, at the same time you arrive to art with valuable life experience, which you can put to good use in the creation of thoughtful and original work. Also, remember that many very important artists started making art fairly late in their career: Marcel Broodthaers, one of the most influential post-war artists, was a poet and made his first art object at 40. W. G. Sebald, one of the most influential European authors, published his first work in his 40s.  Such examples abound. And you should not be concerned about running out of time. Your focus should be to become the best artist you can be, and to find reward in the work that you make. While urgency can be a productive motivation to get to work, you should not let it turn into haste.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

I work at an alternative art space. Part of my job is to solicit artwork donations from an artist roster we have for our annual benefit. Whlle some of these artists in this roster have exhibited as part of our regular exhibition schedule in the past, others have never been invited to do so. One of them complained to me about our solicitations, saying that she has been already asked for several works in the past and that it is hypocritical of us to request donations when we have not shown interest to exhibit her work. My view is that this is indeed an opportunity for artists to get their name out, and that our space can’t possibly show every single artist’s work and thus it is valid to ask for help to those in the art community who attend our space, even if they are only spectators. Who is right?

Benefit Organizer, New York

Dear Benefit Organizer,

She is right. By soliciting free artworks for a benefit to artists who you have not included (or are not likely to include) in your regular exhibition schedule, you are sending the message (intentionally or not) that you have a double standard in artwork selection, and that this artist belongs to the category of those who are good enough to exhibit at the benefit (which is usually not a very exciting context to show a work anyway) but not be included in the regular shows.  I am sure that you have plenty of artists who have indeed exhibited at the space that you could limit your benefit solicitations to them. It is true that you will never be able (nor would ever want to) to exhibit every single artist who visits your space, but if the art community that you are supposed to service is feeling taken advantage of, you have a real problem in your hands and it is your duty to find ways through which these artists will feel, even if not supported, at least treated respectfully.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist.

***

Dear Estheticist,

I am an American artist and have been working with a “personal virtual assistant” from Bangalore to create a project that not only reflects the uneven conditions of the relationship, but also makes attempts to balance out the power dynamics of the relationship by treating my “assistant” like a person, making his interests the content of our work together, and even asking him to assign me tasks. The project has been extremely fulfilling and problematic – right where I want it to be. I have an exhibition planned of the work we have done together, and I’m wondering what you think the best way might be to allow for the relationship be alive during the exhibition.

Thanks,

Artist Entrepreneur

Dear Artist Entrepreneur,

Thank you for bringing up such an interesting and problematic case —which appears to be a classic ethical dilemma in social practice.  First, let’s review the facts: you are an artist who has hired a service. The individual who works for the company and, by extension, for you, is bound to a contractual relationship to which his financial subsistence depends. Even if he enjoys what you are asking him to do, or even if he plots these ideas with you, the relationship is rooted in two unaltered facts: he is doing it as part of a job, and you are his boss. Because of these facts, the relationship artist-assistant is not significantly altered regardless what you ask him to do.

Your desire to disrupt, or expose the power relationships that emerge from globalization is well noted. However, just for the sake of argument: even if this exchange is based on a democratic creative dialogue where you both make aesthetic decisions, it would not be a collaboration, because since your collaborator is likely not a visual artist versed, invested nor inserted in the international art circuit as I would assume you are, even then you will end up getting the credit, and he will remain in the background as an enhancing ingredient to your career.  The reason for this is that the kind of benefits that you are getting from this relationship are tangible but invisible— they are of the reputational economy type: you may appear publicly as a generous or democratic individual, but in the end because you are the one who is bringing this man into your cultural context you are the one to benefit.

In my view, the only way to truly balance the power dynamics of this relationship would be to not make the outcome of the project an exhibition in your cultural playing field (that is, the artworld, america, etc.) To do so would first tilt the project in an advantageous light toward your own practice, and make the assistant look less than a real person and more like a human readymade, which is what these companies sell anyway.  Where you, for instance, to revert the hierarchy and ask him to assign you tasks, or to perform tasks that his friends are doing for other bosses in the U.S., you would be into more interesting territory. And to truly level the relationship, your financial or artistic subsistence should depend on his decisions and suggestions — for instance, having him decide what your art should be like in the next year or so, without you revealing to others that you are taking instructions from him. Or starting your own reverse company, doing the kind of work for free for the personal assistants in Bangalore who service these American companies. Or just becoming the free personal assistant to any random person in Bangalore. Or do like Marina Abramovic who exchanged jobs with a prostitute in Amsterdam for a day. Etcetera.  These courses of action would be in my view a more complementary (and complimentary) alternative to simply exhibiting the projects that you had your virtual assistant do.

This is not to say that it is not valid to retain your artistic authority in this relationship (Santiago Sierra, for instance, exploits people but he is direct about it, even if it may be an unethical act). The problem is that you have created a situation where the artist-assistant relationship you propose to problematize may not appear to go so far as to truly upset the balance. What matters here is conceptual transparency and the kind of stakes that exist on both sides. Without carefully addressing both in your presentation, you risk appearing to simply extend that which you appear to criticize or only half-heartedly exposing your personal risk in a power relationship.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

I would like to ask you where would we be right about now art-wise if Renaissance had never happened – if we had skipped it altogether?

Georgia, Athens

Dear Georgia,

Thank you for your question. Not being a Renaissance expert, I consulted one truly versed Renaissance scholar.  He was puzzled by the question, saying that “I don’t know what the questioner means by “the” Renaissance, and even if I did, I would likely have no idea.”  However, knowing that this is not quite a satisfactory answer, and given our pledge here to answer every question, here I go:

Marxists historians would point out that during the Renaissance the emergence of a bourgeois class (e. g. Medici) with time for leisure and education led to art as a product that could be bought and collected. Furthermore, the emphasis on man as the measure of all things (as opposed to God) has, amongst other consequences, the phenomenon of constructing the notion of “The” artist. With Vasari’s “Lives of the Artists”, this notion is first articulated, and, one would argue, the tendency of narrating art history through the canonical narrative of individual “geniuses”. Fast forwarding to our era, we can all agree that we continue to regard physical artworks as carriers of intrinsic value (both symbolic and financial) and that we continue to nurture the notion of “The” artist (now as in “art star”), both legacies of the Renaissance.  So, what would have happened if the Renaissance hadn’t occurred?  Perhaps we can find part of the answer in societies that did not participate in, or exist outside of, the construction of Western modern culture (indigenous cultures around the world, religious movements, outsider artists, etc).  For some of these people, art is the expression of a collectivity, but it should not have financial value.  Some recognize that great artworks can be created by individuals, but don’t necessarily appreciate or favor an self-centered vision but instead how this work speaks to the group. And in some societies what we call art is not called art and artists are not considered artists in the same way in which religious icons in churches in medieval times were not seen as containing an aesthetic value outside of its expression of faith and the artists were anonymous (until Giotto came along). In other words, interpreting the view of authors like Arthur Danto, without the Renaissance we would not have had a beginning of the art historical arch, we would not have had a modern era, an academy, a modernism, a post-modernism, and the death of art. Art today would perhaps not be called art. Museums as spaces where to show these things would not be considered necessary.  People would make art, but not necessarily sell it or collect it, and this art would perhaps not be about their vision but would perhaps be collectively made or anonymous. And we would have lost the chance to have a Sistine Chapel. But we would have likely also been spared from Damien Hirst.

Sincerely

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

What makes an Art object meaningful? it the indication that something meaningful is present? Is it the attention we proceed to invest in it? Is it our capacity to subsequently rationalize that experience into a communicable verbal analog: to describe it in words? Is it in the act of communication?

Yours sincerely,

Dan, St. Louis

Dear Dan,

Your question lies at the core of epistemology and it is the source of a large debate between proponents of different schools of thought.  From the standpoint of hermeneutics, what makes an artwork meaningful is the successful mediation of a force between the viewer and the object, some kind of “third” force that, if successful, disappears when the connection takes place (the most common example is language: when we speak about an object language help us attain meaning, but at the same time recedes into the background because we are not conscious that we are using it).  Structuralism, by contrast, argued that meaning only can come when you utilize a signifying system —could be feminism, anthropology, political theory, semiotics— to approach an object, and because of the many variables of systems and individuals, meaning is an unstable product. In art museums, an influential approach has come from constructivist theory, which draws from hermeneutics in that it sees the reaching of meaning as a mediated process, and from structuralism in that it is relative to the interpreter. It also places most emphasis on the experience of the viewer as the main constructor of meaning.

In any case, most art education theorists would agree that there are likely a myriad of reasons why an art work becomes meaningful. Objects can be meaningful to us without us having to verbally articulate why. They also become suddenly meaningful when we hear others speak enthusiastically about them. But meaning ultimately is an internal negotiation within yourself, when you process all the information you have received of a particular object and, be it for the suggestibility of the context around you, irrational impulse, or careful reflection on the issues that it poses in your mind. And because the conditions that create it are never fixed, it is unpredictable what may become most meaningful to an individual. Social and cultural conditioning may cause us to agree that a particular art work is very meaningful, but even then we usually disagree on the reason why.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

***

Dear Estheticist,

What do you do when you realize that you are being been stalked, used and vampirized by a so-called friend, some one much younger than you? How do you let the world know that you reject this person? I confronted my friend but he reacted surprised, as if I was mad. I feel as if I was in the “All about Eve’ movie, surrounded by pathological narcissists on coke. I want to escape! Help, please!

Best,

Don Quixote, Spain

Dear Don Quixote,

It would be easier to help you if your letter was a bit less opaque in the details. I gather that by being “vampirized” and “stalked” you are referring to a colleague who has taken advantage of your friendship, perhaps plagiarizing your works or using your friendship for advancing their personal career. The fact that they sound like drug-addicts is not promising either.

Whatever is the case, it is clear that you have surrounded yourself with people that are detrimental to your well-being and your creativity.  But as bleak as your surroundings may look, it is very important for you to know that they don’t represent the totality of the art world: there are valuable people out there that will value and support you as a friend and as artist. Your job is to find them and surround yourself by them in a better environment. Whether that means to simply cutting all ties to your torturer, or to move to another neighborhood, town, or country, is only that only you can decide. But this change will likely require that you drastically change your life as it is- expand your professional circles of friends and acquaintances, seek out the individuals you admire, build a group of people who share your same values.  Usually we blame the others for our own inability to change our situation, but as you yourself suggest this situation has now become untenable and you are the only one who can change it.

Your priority right now should be to sever all ties from those who have caused you this aggravation, and have the discipline not to contact them again.  You can’t move on to meet and develop good relationships because you are too involved with the poisonous ones.  Finally, I suggest that your focus should be to make art, not to worry what others think about you. This focus will ultimately be rewarded.

Sincerely,

The Estheticist

[streaming audio files]

The Art World Home Companion, Smack Mellon, July 17 2010:

The Art World Home Companion, Introduction:

The Art World Home Companion, The Estheticist:

[full video documentation below]

The Art World Home Companion is a radio program originally conceived for  Condensations of the Social, an exhibition at Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, curated by Sara Reisman in June-July of 2010. The project pays tribute to Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, adapting the concept for the contemporary art community. The “Estheticist” segment of the  program invites public participation and offers a counseling and answering of art-related questions from listeners, in the spirit of Randy Cohen’s New York Times column “the Ethicist”.

A live program was presented at Smack Mellon on July 17, 2010 with the participation of Ryan Hill and Larry Krone.

Pablo Helguera and Larry Krone performing "Art Basel", AWHC, 07/15/10, Smack Mellon

Introduction:

The Art World Home Companion is the great variety show and radio podcast desired and expected by all and produced by none — until now. For those of you who feel lonely amidst the social choreographies of the art world, whose anxieties about professional issues generate unanswered questions that they are afraid to ask, who cant detach from Facebook and are a bit nostalgic of the time when you actually got to see and talk to people in person, but feel awkward at openings, for those for whom the art world remains inscrutable, who cannot understand why it is the way it is— who feel that our social rituals are slightly absurd and contradictory, our theorizing incomprehensible, our ethical behavior suspicious, our professional acting opportunistic, and yet you still ache for being part of it —this program is your friend, your companion and your Saturday morning sunshine.

Now that nothing is radical anymore but we are still stressed about it being so, the era of folk conceptualism has begun and it must be celebrated. Well aware of this,  The Art World Home Companion will reach the artist studios in Brooklyn and the Amish households in Pennsylvania, the pristine galleries of Chelsea and the prairie chicken farms of Mississippi, the grave hallways of Bard and the harmonious mountains of Appalachia. Uniquely American in its folksy spirit and humor, its relentless optimism, its shameless commercialism and its confessional talk show nature, The Art World Home Companion is the Car Guys for art students and confused art school graduates, Dr. Phil for artists and independent curators, the Oprah of the art historians, the Jim Cramer for collectors and dealers, and the Larry King of all of us who care about art but have a hard time not becoming cynical about the art world.  Each program will include special guests, American folk music, art recipes, site-specific travel tips from the Atlas of Art Commonplaces, strange manifestos, and the centrally important program The (Esth)ethicist, to whom listeners can write with their burning professional questions. The art world has now a friend, a shoulder to cry on, a companion finally not to compete against or sleep with for convenience but just someone to laugh with, to love, learn and share our eccentricities, fears and desires as members of our little town which is the Art World.

Radio drama: "Otto's Self-Board Meeting"

Full video of the July 17, 2010 program at Smack Mellon:

Part I: introduction and worst exhibition titles competition

Part II: Radio drama: Otto’s Self-Board Meeting

Part III: Larry Krone

Part IV: The Estheticist

Part V: The Estheticist 2nd part

Part VI: Over the Hamptons and Art Basel

Part VII: Art World Trivia and The Dan Flavin Awards

Part VIII: Documenta (final)

Las Aventuras de Olmeco Beuys es un comic que se remonta a la era precolombina, tomando como protagonista un artista olmeca incomprendido. Autor de cabezas colosales, Olmeco Beuys vive en la eterna pero futil búsqueda de reconocimento, becas y exposiciones mientras que es ignorado por su entorno social de galeristas, curadores, artistas y coleccionistas.

Las Aventuras de Olmeco Beuys fue presentado por primera vez en la galería Enrique Guerrero (Mexico, DF) en Mayo del 2010.

El libro, publicado por Jorge Pinto Books, se puede conseguir en Amazon.

The Adventures of Olmeco Beuys is a comic strip created in 2010 which goes back to the Precolumbian era. Its protagonist is a misunderstood Olmec artist. Author of Colossal heads, Olmeco lives in the eternal but futile search of artistic acknowledgment, shows and grants while he is ignored by the social and artistic milieu of dealers, curators, artist and collectors.

The project was first presented at Enrique Guerrero Gallery in Mexico City in May of 2010. The book, published by Jorge Pinto Books, can be purchased in Amazon.

Introducción de Felipe Ehrenberg:

¿Destino manifiesto en las artes?

PABLO ARTONERO

Felipe Ehrenberg

Estaba el cabo en medio del matorral y mal herido, con las tripas colgándole de la panza por un bayonetazo enemigo, cuando llega el sargento:

-¡¡Por Dios, cabo, que feo le dieron…!! ¿Le duele?

-Arghh, mi sargento…. sólo cuando me gana la risa…

NOTICIA:

Censura Gobernación a JIS y Trino por decir “inche”, “mamón” y “puñeta” en la radio.

Diciembre, 2009

El origen de las palabras ‘arte’ y ‘artilleria’ es uno mismo.

1.

México se puede ufanar de tres grandes artistas de apellido Helguera. Tenemos al genial y venerado pintor Jesús (1910-1971), cuya amplia obra conocemos casi toditos los mexicanos a través de reproducciones en calendarios y cajas de fósforos. Tenemos a Antonio, mordaz y elegantísimo cartonero sin cuya certera visión la vida política de México sería otra peor. Tenemos también al artista multidisciplinario Pablo Helguera, que nació el mismo año en que murió don Jesús y cuya obra conocemos muy bien millones de  cibernautas. Es de hecho, nuestro primer artonero.

2.

El principal mérito de don Jesús, además de su buen talante y sus innegables dotes como pintor, fue que logró como nadie darle sustancia a todos los mitos que sostenían a la sociedad mexicana, homogenizando a la ciudadanía dentro de cánones cuidadosamente elaborados a la medida por los ideólogos del Partido Revolucionario Institucional. Por su parte, Pablo H. es un artista inteligente que destaca entre artistas inteligentes. Viajero y versátil, piensa, teoriza, escribe (y publica), crea obra de sustancia y alto calibre. Y es, lo repito, artonero.

3.

Hace un millón de años hubo en el territorio que hoy conocemos como Nafta Sur, un país llamado México. Eran tiempos de la Guerra Fría, López Mateos, el Gran Tlatoahni, en breve le pasaría la estafeta a Díaz Ordaz y las etnias de la gran nación vivían lo que los arqueólogos y antropólogos –y seguramente uno que otro sociólogo- hoy denominan “Los ‘60s”. En el brillante pero reducido mundo cultural de aquella civilización surgieron una serie de monopolios culturales intelecto-delictuosos, compuestos por poetas, escritores, periodistas y editores. El vulgo, que en aquel entonces no se hacía llamar “chilango”, nombró al principal de estos, “La Mafia”, pues alcanzó a incluir a pintores y a uno que otro escultor. Todo indica que este tipo de fenómeno sociocultural también se dio en la mayoría de las capitales iberoamericanas, cuyas cultósferas –no hay que olvidarlo- eran el blanco de la vocación hegemónica de la OEA. Para ahorrarnos espacio (y tiempo) recomiendo leer la grandilocuente aunque graciosamente acertada descripción de cómo funcionaban dichos monopolios, publicada en 1975 por el poeta y escritor mexicano Enrique González Rojo.

4.

De la época de Jesús Helguera a la época de Pablo Helguera (pasando por la de Antonio Cartonero), el mundo ciertamente ha cambiado. Tanto así que si traigo a colación el texto de González Rojo es solo para demostrar cómo el mentado “destino manifiesto” que hoy domina el mundo internacional del arte y que impacta en el mundo del arte mexicano consiguió desplazar los cazicazgos autóctonos (‘grupúsculos elitistas’ los llamó el poeta) para sustituir sus provincianas costumbres por otras, estas sí globales y globalizantes. La única semejanza que tienen entre sí las locales y las globales lo sintetiza el poeta diciendo: “Es necesario indicar… que toda mafia tiene como finalidad crearse un público. No sólo en el sentido de organizarse una demanda, sino en el de rodearse, por así decirlo, de la admiración, envidia, respeto del mayor número de lectores. Una mafia cumple su objetivo cuando hay un número grande de personas que “sueñan” con pertenecer al “grupo selecto” y estar “en el candelero”.

5.

El mayor mérito de Pablo Helguera es que, mientras el poeta requirió 1,900 palabras para describir la situación local, Pablo El Artonero resume lo glocal en una serie de tiritas cómicas que son ácido ascórbico en su estado más puro.

6.

¿Se necesita decir más?

São Paulo, Brasil, 15 de abril del 2010

Pablo Helguera

Otto’s Self Board Meeting

Otto:

Thank you all for coming. I had to call this emergency board meeting of all my top senior selves in order to address a matter of serious importance to the Otto Rumperstreiser Art Career Corporation. As you know, Us, Otto, have not received an invitation to do a solo exhibition for 2010. We are approaching the end of the year and so far My/Our exhibition schedule looks empty. This is an unacceptable situation that I/We all have to work quickly to correct. We just can’t allow this embarrassment. I look forward to your suggestions.

Otto, Senior Marketing Strategist:

To be honest, I have been saying all along that we don’t promote Us enough. People are not aware of our product. We have to be more aggressive. We are up against other artists who have huge galleries with promotional machinery behind them. We need to spend more money, like sending weekly emails about what we do to everyone Otto knows and maybe buy an ad on e-flux. And We have to get ourselves to more important openings. We keep going to the same stupid openings in Chelsea without collectors or decision-makers. We just need a dramatic change of tactic.

Otto, Social Etiquette Supervisor:

We have to be careful with the self-promotional thing. It looks inelegant and desperate. We don’t want to appear desperate. I agree that we need to attend higher-end openings and we need to be more on top of important people’s birthdays. But email doesn’t work anymore. People just delete whatever they get, everyone is saturated even with Facebook.

Otto, Chief Financial Officer:

I am sorry, but we can’t afford an ad campaign right now. Ads cost a fucking fortune. Otto hasn’t sold a work in months and the only money we are getting, from that lecture in that College in Ohio we are going to use it to pay for that stupid photo print job for that piece that Otto agreed to donate for the art auction, and then the rest of the money will have to be spent on that expensive dinner date this coming Friday with the French curator.

Otto, Manager of Getting Laid:

Excuse Us- the French curator actually is a promising relationship. Don’t forget that she said she is very interested in Otto’s work. And in the meantime, let’s face it, she is really hot and Otto is in dire need to get laid.

Otto, Deputy Director of Art Ideas:

Please, let’s focus on the content of Otto’s work. Without the content there is no work, without work there is no career. The other morning We were in the shower We had a really interesting idea for a video piece that would be about the slums of Morocco. It would be a multi-channel video piece and it would show these slums with a narrative of a blind Moroccan prostitute whose story Otto read the other day in Paris Match.

Otto, Coordinator of Reality Check:

That’s ludicrous. First of all, how the hell are we going to get to Morocco to do the video, and then find the prostitute? There is no fucking way we can pull that project together.

Otto, Deputy Director of Art Ideas:

You guys always have to ruin every great initiative. That is why Otto will never make it as an artist.

Otto, Chief Financial Officer:

I am sorry, but we don’t even have the money to buy that external hard drive Otto needs, let alone…

Otto:

Wait a minute. I thought we were talking about getting a show, not about coming up with a new piece!

Otto, Cheating Manager:

How about if we just steal footage from YouTube or something and get a female friend to do a prostitute voiceover?

Otto, Senior Marketing Strategist:

Wait a minute: what if we ask the French curator to do the voiceover, and then once the piece is made we ask for her help to get the piece shown? She may even have contacts in Morocco. Wasn’t it a French colony? Wasn’t she working on a show about post-colonialism? She is totally going to love this piece.

Otto, Deputy Director of Art Ideas:

I don’t know about that idea, it’s too opportunistic…

Otto, Coordinator of Reality Check:

At least sounds doable. We can pull it off.

Otto:

We are pathetic.

Otto, Manager of Getting Laid:

I think it’s a great idea. What do we have to loose? If anything, We will get laid.

Satándranas Obrescas is a series of works first started in 1995. The works on view here are from 2009. These works have no explanation.

Artoons is a series of books of cartoons about the artworld (Volume I – January 2009; Volume II- October 2009). The cartoons have been published in many art publications internationally from Ireland to Brazil and new ones continue to appear on a regular basis in a number of web and print publications.  They were first developed for Artworldsalon.com, where they continue to appear on a regular basis.

http://www.pintobooks.com/illustratedbooks10Helguera.html.

“An artist, museum educator, and man about town (specifically, New York City), Helguera is an amateur anthropologist of the art world. (…) [Helguera’s] cartoons really do capture the foibles, ironies, and occasional stupidity of the art world with a clarity and economy that only a simple pen drawing and a short piece of text can achieve. They fill an important gap. Cartooning is rarely done in the art world (…) Maybe the problem isn’t the humor, but the truth. It may take years of sleuthing for Helguera, the anthropologist, to figure out why this is so. In the meantime, Pablo’s Artoons can do the talking for us.”

—From the foreword by Adrás Szántó

Poster for The Metropolitan Opera Bathroom

The Metropolitan Opera Bathroom consisted in a live recital -a capella, and au naturel- under the shower, on June 1, 2008, as part of the exhibition “Entree”, curated by Krista N. Saunders in a private apartment in New York’

s Upper West Side. More than 100 visitors had a chance to listen to arias from operas by Puccini, Verdi, Mozart, Leoncavallo, Bizet, and others, while the more daring were able to peek in at the performance behind the shower curtain.

Video

A sketch in one act

Pablo Helguera

Loving Chicago is like loving a woman with a broken nose.
Nelson Algren

Characters:

Pablo Helguera, a lecturer
Encarnacion Teruel, the moderator
Scott Vehill, art critic from Peoria
Sharon Stein, a Peoria artist and arts administrator

We All are Streeter was first performed at the Hyde Park Art Center on April 2006, in celebration of the opening of the new facilities of this art center. The program was presented as a real panel discussion to the public.

Time: Chicago, Illinois, April 2006
(all panelists and lecturer arrive. Pablo will lecture from a podium, opposite from the panel table, and will be showing slides throughout. The panelists sit at a table. They will not acknowledge Pablo’s presence nor will they look at him throughout the piece)

Encarnación Teruel
Ladies and Gentlemen: Thank you for coming to this discussion, presented in celebration of the Hyde Park Art Center’s reopening. My name is Encarnacion Teruel and I am Director of Performing Arts at the Illinois Arts Council.

Pablo Helguera
Good evening, and thank you for coming to this program this evening. We will speak tonight about an obscure chapter about Chicago’s history that hopefully will shed some light about the link between the  geography of a place and the idiosyncrasies it inspires.

Encarnacion
For this particular event, and in order to illuminate the Chicago audience a bit on the arts in Illinois, we thought we would present a debate around the subject: “How Do You Define the Spirit of Peorian art?”

Pablo Helguera
Oprah said once: “When in 1983 I set foot in this city, and just walking down the street, it was like roots, like the motherland. I knew I belonged here.”

Encarnacion
Peoria is home to great and diverse creativity. Our objective here in this panel is to talk about their common links and what defines Peorian art.

Pablo Helguera
But I am not here to speak about Oprah. I am here to speak to you about a person who is almost forgotten in the city’s history, and yet, whose life would very much define Chicago’s urban landscape. He has been ridiculed and criticized as a plain eccentric, but he should be regarded as a visionary.

The history of Chicago changed forever on an unusually stormy day on July 10, 1886. An old boat crashed against the sandbar of the shores of Lake Michigan 450 feet from Superior Street. Little did people know that this incident would define the future of the city.

The man in charge of this boat was Captain George Wellington Streeter, born in Flint, Michigan, in 1837. Captain Streeter was quite an adventurer. He made the Great Lakes his working environment. He worked as a logger and trapper in Canada, as Ice-cutter in Saginaw Bay, and a iron and copper miner. He joined the civil war on the side of the Union Army, and was later discharged as a captain. When he retired from the army, his wife Minnie convinced him to start a circus, and he did so. However, Streeter was not such an accomplished showman, and his enterprise collapsed into bankruptcy in two years. His wife left him with all the remaining money, and Streeter had to start all over again. He remarried with Maria Mulholland. We don’t know how, but the endless enterprising Streeter managed eventually to buy and repair an old boat, which he named the Reutan, and which we presume it was used for logging and transportation.

After his accidental landing in Chicago’s shore, Captain Streeter didn’t have many options. He decided to stay there, however, since it was impossible to move the boat and he didn’t have any money to pay rent.

Streeter landed in Chicago at a momentous time of the city’s reconstruction after the great Chicago fire. He realized that building developers we looking for a place to dump debris, and he convinced them to do this near his boat for a fee.

In the meantime, the New York millionaire that owned the land where Streeter had landed started trying to get rid of him.  His name was Kellogg Fairbank. Fairbank had at the beginning left Streeter stay where he was, as he seemed a harmless presence, but then things started getting more complicated.

Encarnacion
With me is Sharon Stein, a Peoria artist who lives and works in Peoria. She is the director of We Are Peoria, an organization that promotes the arts in Peoria. We have also invited the international art critic Scott Vehill, also from Peoria, who is the editor of New Art Peoria. Scott has devoted many years to the study of artistic psychology and behavior, and who will hopefully shed some light on the idiosyncrasy of Peorian artists. Scott has contributed to Artforum and is very active in the curatorial circles in the U.S. and abroad.

Perhaps we can start by asking you Sharon about the work of your organization and what kinds of programs you do.

Sharon
Thanks Encarnacion. I am very happy to be here. We Are Peoria is a not-for profit organization that was founded in 1977, with the purpose to set the record straight regarding Peorian art and give it the importance it deserves. It supports Peorian artists and Peorian art institutions. We seek to prove that art made in Peoria is equal or superior to any art made in the US today.

Scott ( smiling, to Sharon)
You know I am planning to contest that statement.

Sharon
Oh, I bet you will…

Encarnacion
Well, we will discuss that later. So, how is Peorian art better? I mean, how do you quantify this?

Sharon
Well, it’s very simple. Peorian artists are not dominated by the pressures of the market like in Chicago, nor are they prone to careerism and fashion like Chicago artists, and they also are not overshadowed by politics or rivalries like in Chicago.  We focus on the work, not on the talk, or the glamour. We at Go Peoria seek to prove that the art of Peoria is actually the most balanced, original, and independent, at the level or greater to the art of any big city.

Encarnacion
What kind of programs do you do?

Sharon
We have a lot of programs. We have the Peoria Only Art initiative, which is an initiative that gives substantial grants to museums that collect only Peorian art. It is a very competitive grant.

Encarnacion
What do you need to do to apply?

Sharon
Basically the grant requires institutions to stop collecting art from other places than Peoria. We also have a grant for Peorian artists to make art about Peoria, titled About Peoria Grant Initiative.

Encarnacion
Do you fund anything outside of Peoria?

Sharon
Well, we do have a grant named Make Me Peorian, which is directed to non-Peorian artists who may consider moving to Peoria and make art there. The grant supports you for five years, during which you are not allowed to exhibit outside of Peoria.

Encarnacion
And do you really reinforce this rule?

Sharon
Oh yes, of course we do. Last year an artist that we had funded participated in a group show in the community library of Decatur. We took away the grant immediately. He claimed that he thought, “It was just a very informal show”. But for us this lies at the core of the mission of the organization. We are serious about this. We can’t allow artists to serve other publics than those that we intend to serve. We need to show the city and the state that we are serious about nurturing out arts community.

Encarnación
I saw in the news recently that there were some debates regarding how some people define South versus Northern Peorian art… could you talk a bit about that?

Sharon [reluctant]
Well… it is really not such an interesting issue, really.

Encarnacion:
Could you talk about them? I think it would be useful…

Scott
Basically, its that some committee members in their organization have been pushing for a South Peoria initiative, where South Peorian artists can be funded only to make artwork about South Peoria.

Sharon
Scott— it’s not like that, like you described it. It’s not a real initiative. They are in the minority and they are totally disorganized and under funded. It’s not even worth talking about.

Scott
But why not mentioning it? I think it’s a very telling fact.
Of course this has not sit well with the North Peoria artists, nor with the East Peoria artists, some of which have already proposed the East Peoria Artists Council. And now, a group of West Peoria artists have formed the West Peorian Association of Chicano-Asian –or is it the Latino-Asian?—the Chicano-Asian American Women Sculptors, that’s it—  and are searching funds from Springfield to build a museum by and for West Peorian, Latino-Asian American Women Sculptors.

Sharon
That’s not  a serious proposal in the least! I don’t know why you even bring it up.

Encarnación
Ok, going back to your grant initiatives: don’t you think that Peoria artists who exhibit internationally can give a good name to the city?

Sharon
It doesn’t work that way, you see. Artists who exhibit outside forget about Peoria the moment they leave. We experience a serious talent exodus problem, which originates when local artists start showing outside. This in turn, makes them want to move out.  Artists who are talented think that by leaving Peoria to places like Chicago they will have a better shot at success. The same goes for galleries. But that is not true. Peoria galleries who move out to Chicago inevitably fail.

Encarnación
What do you do when a Peorian artist leaves Peoria for good?

Sharon (showing it is a very painful subject)
Oh yes, them. To be honest, I don’t give much thought to them. It’s their loss, really. Simply, my thinking is— out of sight, out of mind. They don’t exist for me, really. (fake smile). Yeah, really, its’ their loss.

Pablo
As the shore grew from the debris and the natural erosion process, Captain Streeter declared that the land where his boat stood “’twas a separate commonwealth, under the direct jurisdiction of the United States government”.  He declared it “the independent district of Lake Michigan”. Streeter then started renting this land to whoever wanted to live there, which mostly were prostitutes and lowlifes. Soon it became a shantytown, and the rich people who lived around there started complaining about the smell and the fact that these shacks were lowering the value of the area.

Encarnacion
Well, I would like to focus now on the subject of our discussion. How would you characterize Peorian art? how do you define the sensibility that produces it? Scott, perhaps you can shed some light on the subject for us?

Scott
Hopefully. I have done some research on this subject in a lecture I recently gave in Austria,  and in fact published an article on the American Association of Art Critics journal this year that touches on the character of the Peorian artist, as part of a paper about artists who live in cultural regions that are similar to Peoria. There is not enough time to present all the ideas on that paper, but I will try to provide a summary.

It is very difficult to arrive to a unified theory of the Peorian artist mind. There has been a lot written about it. Psychologists have been interested in it since the times of Hermann Rorschach, who in his early studies did research on art and madness, and one of his subjects was a patient precisely from Peoria.

Freudian psychologists believe that the creativity of Peorian artists is fundamentally rooted on a sentiment of abandonment or lack of external attention, very similar, that is, to the psychology of an orphan, something like a sense of inferiority in regards to people in other urban areas.

Sharon (visibly insulted)
That is just so absurd…

Scott
I am sorry- we can discuss this idea later, but If you let me finish…

Encarnacion
I’m sorry Sharon, if you could…

Sharon
How can you possibly base a theory like that based only on an insane guy who lived in the 1920s!

Scott
I just need that you let me finish presenting this idea and we can talk about it.

Encarnacion
Ok.

Pablo
Streeter’s legal argument was that the state of Illinois had no jurisdiction in giving shore owners title to the land.  This was based on the 1821 survey of the Chicago area authorized by Congress as part of a treaty with the Indians.  Rather than giving “the shore of Lake Michigan” as a general eastern boundary, the surveyor John Wall minutely described the shoreline.  Thus, when Robert Kinzie acquired a 103.27-acre tract north of the Chicago River, it had definite eastern boundary.  Over the years, the courts had consistently ruled that the heirs of the Kinzie grant could never claim more than a total of 103.27 acres, and here lay the strength of Streeter’s case.

Regardless, however, a series of battles to evict Streeter followed. The first one was in 1889, when five police officers tried to evacuate Streeter. They, however, were faced by rifles and chased away. The second battle was until 1899, when five police officers again managed to grab the captain, but his wife Maria attacked them with boiling water; Streeter managed to get a hold of his rifle then and chased them away.  The Independent State of Lake Michigan was not going to give up its fight so easily.

Scott
As I am saying, we depart from a study of city rivalries. Chicago is to Peoria what New York is to Chicago, what Istanbul is to Ankara, Berlin is to Munich, Paris is to Lyon, and so on. So  if we study how an artist here develops professionally, according to this theory, we see artists exhibit a series of attitudes that people have come to associate largely with Peorian art.  One of them is known as “compensation for invisibility”. As the artist feels that he or she is not visible enough in the art world, he or she tries to compensate by making work that is quantifiably different, either by size, erudition, or extravagance- but these traits are clearly intentional and have the objective to make the work more visible and emphasize its different character from the centralized mainstream. Examples are Bill Johnson’s “million egg march” installation- he placed one million eggs on the floor, that is, and claimed it was a demonstration to defend the rights of caged chickens in an egg farm near Peoria. He thought if you place one million its has greater impact than if you place, say, a hundred- although someone told me the other day that they actually were like a nine hundred, but who would spend the time to count them, really. The other is the work of Archie Phillips, who is known for his famous performance referencing the fact that Caterpillar trucks are manufactured in Peoria. The piece was entitled “Explaining pictures to a dead Caterpillar”.

Sharon
I think it is a very poignant piece.

Pablo
In the meantime, Fairbanks had sued Streeter for illegal occupation in 1893 and had won, which meant that Streeter needed to get out legally. However, he decided to stay. Streeter continued creating schemes to prove that the land belonged to him. He even produced a document that he claimed that was signed by president Grover Cleveland. While he never managed to get legal acknowledgement that he owned any land, Streeter continued to sell plots to other people, and the community started to grow. It went from Oak Street to St. Clair.

Chicago was changing furiously at the time, the fastest growing city in America. Another Chicago millionaire, Potter Palmer, realized that if they built a road on the sides of this land, they could make a lot of money selling it back from the city. He started building this road, which would be later named Lake Shore Drive, but he encountered the infamous Captain Streeter on his way, who opposed the building of this road in “his” land. Palmer died in 1902, without finishing his project, and the legal battles continued between the Chicago millionaires and the poor captain.

Scott
Anyway, my point is that living in the cultural and economic periphery leads to make work that affirms peripheral sensibility, and thus the eccentricity that sometimes is talked about when one deals with Peorian art. This connects with something I call the “intense introspection” trait, rooted in romanticism, which seeks to dwell in the personal psychology and in the strangest obsessions. Another trait is known as the “negation of the outside” which is when one is self-convinced that nothing outside of one’s immediate surrounding really exists.

But my contention, actually, is that Peorian art doesn’t really exist. When it is self-proclaimed a regional movement, then it becomes a political strategy not an artistic one. Art is art, period. Regionalism is an expression of psychological weakness.

Sharon [visibly irritated]
Oh my god. O-kay, I really have to interject here. I had never heard so much baloney in a panel, really.  I don’t know how many more psychological definitions you have in there Scott,  but I find these incredibly offensive to Peorian art and artists. First of all, Peorian artists don’t suffer from those introspection sicknesses you describe. And it’s just not true that Peorian artists are obsessed with Chicago or any other city.  We simply don’t care about it. In fact, we at We Are Peoria have an initiative entitled Boycott Chicago. As part of it, we prevent Peoria artists to exhibit in Chicago or any other city, and do all we can to prevent non-Peorian artists to exhibit in Peoria, be as they may be from Chicago or Kazakstan.

Encarnacion
But don’t these policies seem a bit extreme?

Sharon
Not in the least, if you consider that Peorian art has been so misrepresented by important Chicago museums over the years, and that the Chicago Tribune had the nerve to write, when Richard Pryor, a Peoria native, recently died, that the best thing that ever happened to him was getting out of Peoria. How dare they?

Encarnación
Scott,  don’t you think that what is peripheral and what isn’t is a very subjective discussion?

Scott
Excuse me, Encarnacion— Sharon, if I may—and I am still not done- what you are saying all but proves my point in question,  since you are confirming to us that Chicago art is such a sore subject in the Peorian art scene.

Sharon
No—you are presenting this as an inferiority complex, which I find completely insulting to Peorian art. Why do we always have to make everything be about Chicago, why?

Scott
But if you have an initiative that is specifically about boycotting Chicago!

Sharon
Well we have no recourse, do we? Specially if there are people out there like you, saying that we feel inferior to Chicago or whatever. I think that your way of thinking just reveals your own personal inferiority complex. You of all people, Scott!

Scott
(sarcastically laughing at her)
What do you mean “I, of all people”?. I am sorry, but you are the one with the inferiority complex, not me. You are the one who doesn’t want to acknowledge the outside just because the outside doesn’t acknowledge you.

Sharon
Well, if that is true, how more pathetic is it to be like you, who is totally ignored by the outside and then disregards his own city as a revenge. Last time you contributed to Artforum was in 1981, and you pretend you have an international critic career? Give me a break!

Scott
You are just jealous…

Sharon
I don’t sit around pontificating about other people’s psychologies, pretending that I am above the rest. I only value what I have. You have a disregard for what is yours, and that is pitiful.

Scott
How do you know that I disregard what I have?

Sharon
When you are critical of everyone, when you think that everyone else is pathetic, when nothing is good enough for you, doesn’t that say something about the psychology of that person? I mean, ever since we co-curated the Peoria Invitational in 1987…

Scott
I can’t believe you are going to bring that up again…

Sharon
Scott: at that event you brought this awful German artist or whatever, who was the worst of the whole show, and you pushed and pushed to give him the first prize just because you wanted to look international and because no one understood the work. And the caterpillar piece by Archie Phillips did not even get an award because of you…

Scott
Well yes, I thought it was a very derivative piece! And I still do. Even if Archie won’t talk to me again since that day.

Encarnacion
I think we need to backtrack here…

Scott (to Sharon)
You know, I can’t believe you are telling me this. You know nothing about conceptual art! You can’t lock yourself in a room. There is a world out there. People were furious that he won just because he was not from Peoria.

Sharon
Well, you may know a lot, but are in total denial about yourself.
How many shows have you curated internationally in the last ten years?

Scott (who has no answer)
I think this is just ludicrous… that is no way to judge what I do…

Sharon
And yet, who is the person who bashes Peorian art more than anyone, and who at the same time, every time there is an opportunity for someone to talk about Peorian art, there you are, first in line. Look at yourself, you are sitting right here. The expert on Peorian art psychology telling us that Peorian art sucks, who hates Peorians and himself.

Pablo
But then, Streeter’s audacity reached a high point. He started claiming land that was already owned by the Palmers as his own, So things finally escalated to a point where it was critical to evict the Captain and his people. Streeter raised a small army to defend the Independent District of Lake Michigan.  500 policemen from the city of Chicago surrounded the district and attacked the army. And the great battle for the independence of the State of Lake Michigan took place.  15 people died in total. Streeter was captured and finally evicted.  But he would continue fighting for his land in the courts until the day of his death.

The opening of the Michigan Avenue Bridge in 1920 catapulted Streeterville into the most prime real estate in Chicago.  Having been kept relatively vacant for decades because of the constant litigation, the land was still under dispute when the construction boom began.

Sharon
(after a brief silence, in a more reflective and melancholic mood)
I have a dream of an artworld that truly belongs to Peoria and makes it special.  I feel that meaning is always stripped away from us, from what we actually own and are rightfully connected to. When I walk down the streets of downtown Peoria, I often think about this. Why do we have to exist in a world where someone else tells you how much what you have is worth? Peoria is our place, and even if it is not paradise, we need to make art about that place.

Scott
Just for the record Sharon, at that 1987 invitational— I know that German artist wasn’t necessarily that good. But I wanted to set an example, I wanted to show that we can be international too.  It has been frustrating to me that we always have to remain local. I am a Peorian too, and I also want to claim something of my own that I can be proud of. I also wanted Peoria to be the center of the world.

Sharon (Who did not even pay attention to Scott and is turning confessional, in tears almost)
I am from Ohio, actually. I went to art school in Cleveland. I always wanted to move to Chicago. And I did, when I was nineteen. It was an awful experience, living in a horrible neighborhood in a rickety apartment with mice. It was not welcoming at all. I hated Chicago ever since. Peoria was not in the plan, but one day I landed here, I got a job here after that and never left. Maybe there is something about this place that makes us never wanting to leave. If you excuse me.
(leaves)

Pablo
Streeter moved to a houseboat on the Calumet River in  East Chicago, Indiana with his third and last wife, Emma Lockwood.

Before he died, rumor has it that he wrote a cryptic letter to his “subjects of the Independent State of Lake Michigan”. According to some of these accounts, that must not be trusted, the letter said: “Fellow citizens of our State: I shall soon leave your company, as the infirmities of age catch up with me. I sorely regret not being able to return your land to your rightful hands. God knows that I fought to the best of my abilities for our land rights. But regardless how many people try to strip us away from our lawful possession, and how many buildings may be imposed, the spirit of that site will always be ours, and the land shall carry our name, and our mark, for the ages to come”.

George Wellington Streeter died on January 24, 1921.  His body was sent back to Chicago and hundreds of people went to pay his respects to him.

Streeter’s land ran from Oak Street to the Chicago River, and extends from Pine Street to Lake Michigan, and is the place where Navy Pier, the Hancock building, the Magnificent mile and the Drake Hotel now stand. Who would know that the heart of this city would have been founded by this eccentric man, that it was once claimed as a separate state, and that the name of this neighborhood would end up coming after the illegal squatterer and not after the legal owner?

You may think that Streeter was insane, but maybe he was vindicated by his claims of ownership, of place. The place that he once claimed as his own, is now named after him, –Streeterville—
and not after those who had purchased the land.

Identity lies in between where we happen to be and where we want to be in our minds. We create mental places out of the physical places.  We divide our territory in parts, we plant whatever we like in it. We also can put a fence around it and claim it as our own. Sometimes it doesn’t really belong to us, but we seek for ownership anyway, because ownership means identity. It is natural to claim something as your own. It helps you affirm who you are. But you need to remember that no piece of land is truly yours. And that legacy is entirely in your mind, and maybe carried along in the minds of others.

Encarnacion
Thank you so much for joining us. Next week we will address the subject of  “What is the spirit of Chicago art”.
(leaves)

Pablo
Which makes me think, it is our stubborn embracing of a reality as our own that eventually will make us transcend who we are.
We all are Streeter, because when we arrive to life we have no set place in it, and it is up for us to accept the place where we are, which is a combination perhaps of a place in the world, and a place in our minds. And like Streeter, like an artist, the place that once existed in his mind became the place that now exists in our lives.
(leaves)

Scott (last one sitting at the table, slowly picking up his papers, meditative. He stands up and prepares to leave. He stops mid-way, looking back at the room)
I really thought his work was good. You know, that German artist. I thought he was so much better than the caterpillar.
(pause)
I guess the caterpillar was OK too.
(exits)