4. Letter to Timothy
Ed Deary Sometimes when I read Instant Coffee I think about how much of a “affliction” living in a small town in the middle of nowhere is. So here is a short list of events:
This weekend:
Star Belly Jam, a music festival featuring “hippie” bands.
Free camping, the all-day ticket price is 20$ a day.
(note- I don’t think the bands are the reason to attend this: the lackey crowd, laced up should provide anybody with a reason to go. This is the equivalent to a trade show on drugs. I won’t go, but I look forward to the inevitable stories that will flow out. Really, some of the things that I have heard have been quiet re-tellable).
So much should have been written down. My memory is not what it should be, and I am so afraid my weakness will keep me away from what I want.
What are you doing now? Are you working out of the house and with your “instant coffee”? Do you still fight with your sister?
I have to leave this place, move in with my mother in North Vancouver, and put my stuff in storage. You did this, how was it?
Sometimes I think that I should get more student loan money and go to UBC’s English department. Other times I think that I should keep going with what I’m doing, (the relentless studio practice).
At the Khyber, your stairway show blurred the separation between studio practice and the contemplative act. Sometimes I think of that show, the way you were able to weave idea and thing together. Sara’s art of cooking pulled me so far from school. Now I’m sewing trousers. Happy to run away from the institutions, learn to cook, and name it badly with the feminist quip; the private is political. God, some days I actually believed that I was doing art- staying home making myself dinner. Black on Black paintings have the same effect as picking one’s nose. So what the f–k, I want to leave the house now – engage with this public society. I live alone and plan to move home. Maybe that’s o.k?
1. Pope Mass Sunday 28 July 2002, Downsview Park
by Timothy Comeau I got up at the time that I usually go to bed and took the TTC with people who were all dressed in their Sears best. I arrived at the grounds at 7am and walk into the crowd. It rains. Umbrellas go up. The boys choir begins to sing, and I shiver hearing Vivaldi’s “Gloria” which of course reminds me of the intro to the Frontline Pope documentary that was one of the reasons I wanted to see him in person. They also sang Handel’s Hallelujah, and this was entertaining while we waited. Then Elvis entered the building.
The Pope’s helicopter flew over the crowd and people got excited. The Pope is like a Santa Claus who dresses in white and doesn’t have a beard. I guess this was the adult version of the Santa Clause parade. People were yelling, “close the umbrellas so we can see!” Enough people did this, so that I caught a good glimpse of him. When he drove by I saw him from his bad side (cause with his illness he leans to one side, so I saw him from the side he leans away from) so I didn’t really see his face, but it was more than a little awe inspiring. I got caught up in the moment, with people yelling; “wave!” and I waved. The excitement was intense. I was awed and joy filled to see him, which felt a little embarrassing, but then again, that’s why I was there, to see in person this man who I feel has had a influence on my life.
I had faith that the rain would stop for the Mass, and it did. Throughout, I would follow those who were trying to get closer. For the most part the Pope was a green dot on the stage, and I watched the screens, but by the end I did get close enough to see the white of his hair. People were busy chatting and looking for lost members of their group and taking photographs, so it had this odd mix of solemnity and rock concert. With all the mud I thought of Woodstock, and one of the papers had described it as Popestock earlier in the week, and that seemed really appropriate that day. I felt bad when I had to squeeze past a couple of girl’s who praying during the benediction of the host, and I realized that I interrupted them in their moment. The Australians were on their knees at that point, which reminded me of the passage in the Bible where Jesus says, dont pray in public because then you’re just showing off and not honoring God, rendering the act sacrilege.
Rating: 8 out of ten
My rating for this is 8, cuz it was a once in lifetime experience and it was memorable. But that’s being totally subjective. If I wanted to pretend to be objective, I’d give it and the week surrounding it a 4 or even a 3, because the Catholics were weirdos, they trampled the grounds into mud, clogged up the drains so that business got flooded with sewage; preached their usual bullshit about how sex is bad and that all men had a duty to fatherhood, “whether spiritual or physical”, protested in front of the abortion clinic, clogged up the TTC, sang sing-alongs on the Go Trains, (especially that abysmal theme song, ugh) and generally drove me nuts with their fairy tales and “spontaneous discussion groups” on whether or not it was ok to marry Jews or Protestants. What an embarrassment to 2000 years of history and thought. (Timothy Comeau)
2. Interview Rza Davis talks with Timothy Comeau about his Joseph Beuys Petition
RD: Timothy, why did you start the Joseph Beuys at the Ago petition?
TC: Because Joseph Beuys is an interesting artist whose work I want to be able to see more of. I made a painting of that blackboard in art school but I’ve never been able to see it in person. I went to the AGO in the summer of 97 looking for it and it wasn’t there. That was five years ago. As far as I know, it hasn’t been displayed during this time. Meanwhile, you have that fucking rotting foam hamburger, kitchen sink and mediocre Andy Warhol hanging around boring me and I’m sure many other people. I asked people I knew who worked there if they could get the Beuys blackboard out of storage but they didn’t have any luck. So I started the petition.
RD: What kind of response has it gotten?
TC: Well, it’s been a little disappointing. Only got about 65 signatures in two months. Well, no, now that I think of it, that’s pretty good. I got some interesting responses. One person just wrote instead of their name “Poor Joseph Beuys (not like any of us undiscovered starving artists without representation at the AGO, my heart bleeds)” which I thought is a good point about that institution’s relationship to the city. One girl emailed me to say that she wouldn’t sign it because Beuys sucked. Well, you know that’s not the point. Maybe he did suck, but the question is, shouldn’t we get the chance to decide that for ourselves? I mean, at this point, I know Claes Oldenburg sucks. When I first started this and was spreading the word, a lot of discussion was generated on just how much stuff they have in storage that we never get to see, and it could get a little passionate. It’s a can of worms. Or, if you prefer another metaphor to that tired one, “you know you shouldn’t touch toads cuz they give you warts”. I heard that in a French movie that was set in my old hometown during the 19th Century.
RD: That’s an old wive’s tale and the source of your quote is irrelevant to Beuys.
TC: I know, but when you think about it, maybe not – we know today that toads don’t give you warts, but it’s still funny to hear and it reflects what people thought 150 years ago. And in some ways, I think that’s what Beuys was about, making work that was sometimes humorous, indulging it with this mythical bullshit that had roots in the past, and reminding us that art should not be seen as separate from life. Every time you make dinner you’re creating something, and every time you write a grocery list you’re drawing. This past summer I got into a conversation with a couple of the Catholic kids and after learning that I was an artist asked me to draw for them. So I did, and because I was put on the spot it was a really bad drawing. So I apologized, and they say, ” Oh, it’s really good, I can’t draw at all”. The correct answer for that, although it always escapes me in the awkwardness of the occasion, is “if you can write you can draw, since learning the alphabet is a matter of learning to draw shapes.” I found an old notebook from Grade 1 a couple of years ago I used while learning the alphabet and I could see that I was struggling with it. Now it’s unconscious. Anyone can do it if they want to take the time.
RD: I’m not sure I agree with you that Beuys is relevant in uniting art and life, since, as you say, his work was infused with “mythical bullshit”. That type of thing seems to emphasize artificial hierarchical divisions.
TC: That’s true, but that’s what his work means to *me*. I like the fact that this blackboard is essentially his lecture notes. I watched the video of the lecture he gave when he drew it while I was in art school, and that’s what impressed me. If his lecture notes can be considered a drawing, and fund a scholarship, why weren’t all the other lecture notes I’d seen scrawled across the blackboards of gradeschool and university given the same aesthetic status? I really took to that idea of markmaking. I started to look into his drawing more, and I like his drawings precisely because they’re so bad: I’ve tried and it’s impossible to draw as badly as that. (Even my drawing for the Catholic still retained some skill). In all of this, there’s an attraction, I guess because of his celebrity, because of his notoriety, and the point of the petition is that the public in Toronto deserves to experience that, and be given the opportunity to let his work mean something to *them*, instead of a contemplating a sink in a canvas, or seeing in person an Andy Warhol they’ve already seen a million times on tv.
RD: I heard that one person thought your write up stank and so even though they agreed with you, they couldn’t put their name to it.
TC: Yeah, I did write it in haste, and had to bite my tongue about the resentment I feel for their boring shows (except the David Hoffos one this summer was pretty good). I tried to flatter them instead. It’s an awkward write up, I agree, but I’d like to thank you Rza, for giving me the opportunity to better explain myself.
RD: Why, you’re welcome. So where should people go to sign this if they agree with you?
TC: http://www.petitiononline.com/beuys/