We're not real big on birthday celebrations but here's one we want to mention before the year gets away from us. Warrior Ant Press was 10 years old this past November. This is an image from the first Minister of Information piece, taken at a show of William F. Burroughs called "Shootings and Paintings" whereby Burroughs hung a bunch of his work that had first been painted and then shot up with guns and/or bows and arrows. The show was messy crap, but the public came
en masse to see the showman and buy some of his work before he passed on.
Burroughs, who was completely stoned at the opening on a mixture of heroin and alcohol was propped into the corner where he greeted the gathering, fawning, cognesceti eager to shake his hand and gush praise. He hardly noticed that I was dressed in a gold-leafed Class A hazmat suit when I sat across from him, scanned him with Geiger counter, then took his photo. I immediately began to manipulate the Polaroid image, much to the horror of those gathered around, then was offered $500 cash for the image - which I refused. Burroughs was oblivious to all the commotion. After he passed out, I took his chair and the cognesceti assumed that I was part of the show and asked for my autograph. I gladly obliged.
The text above the images reads, "Shoot every author orator permit nothing true" was an assemblage from the gallery brochure with a nod to a technique Burroughs used early in his career of cutting and rearranging the text of other writers. Burroughs is flanked by images of a pile of human excrement that was in the gallery parking lot, one taken on my way into the gallery and the other on my way out. The first is marked
Crap ,and labeled
revolutionary, and the other marked
More of the Same Crap, and labeled
visionary again with text lifted from the brochure.
Recycle Art. Manipulated Polaroids, gold and silver leaf, found objects on paper, 1997, 8" x 12"
We forgot to celebrate last week. Warrior Ant Press, the blog, is one year old. 1 year, 415 posts, and a mermaid. We're swimming in it.