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| Pawel Althamer Self Portrait as a Businessman 2002 with additions 2004 installation (clothing, newspaper, other retail commodities) Tate, London |
MODERN CITY
A wedge of steel flung skyward
and beyond it the prairie flatlines.
Each unhappy family permits itself
another slice of pie. The sky turns
constantly trying to get it right.
To the east, the slum eats itself:
a man in satin fields calls
and walks the children's block.
To the west, the west begins.
Beneath us in the underground museuem
moths feed at the stuffed muskrat
and the grizzly's fur fades to white,
so white you argue he's a different bear.
– Eliza Griswold (2007)
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| Bob and Roberta Smith I Went to an Event at the Tate 2009 commercial paint on fridge door Tate, London |
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| Bob and Roberta Smith I was Hansel in the School Play 2008 woodcut Tate, London |
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| Tania Bruguera Tatlin's Whisper #5 2008 performance (2 people, 2 horses) Tate, London |
THE GREAT TSUNAMI
She recognizes its crest in the way he looks at her.
The wave is as vast as the roiling mass in the Japanese
Print they had paused in front of at the museum,
Capped with ringlets of foam, all surging sinew.
That little village along the shore would be
Totally lost. There is no escaping this.
The wave is flooding his heart,
And he is sending the flood
Her way. It rushes
Over her.
Can you look at one face
For the whole of a life?
Does the moon peer down
At the tides and hunger for home?
– Michele Wolf (2001)
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| Paul Winstanley Woman at a Window 2 2003 oil on canvas Tate, London |
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| Michael Craig-Martin Becoming 2003 software and monitor Tate, London |
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| Tacita Dean Majesty 2006 gouache on photograph mounted on paper Tate, London |
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| Patrick Caulfield Braque Curtain 2005 acrylic on canvas Tate, London |
FIRE SAFETY
Aluminum tank
indifferent in its place
behind a glass door
in the passageway,
like a tea urn
in a museum case;
screaming-machines
that dumbly spend each day
waiting for gas or smoke
or hands or heat,
positioned like beige land mines
overhead,
sanguine on walls,
or posted on the street
like dwarf grandfather clocks
spray painted red;
little gray hydrant
in its warlike stance;
old fire escape,
all-weather paint job peeling,
a shelf for threadbare rugs
and yellowing plants;
sprinkler heads,
blooming from the public ceiling;
all sitting
supernaturally still,
waiting for us to cry out.
And we will.
– Joshua Mehigan (2010)
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| Juan Araujo Glass House No. 6 2006 oil on panel Tate, London |
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| Juan Araujo Glass House No. 7 2006 oil on panel Tate, London |
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| Juan Araujo Sculpture 2009 oil on paper Tate, London |
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| Dexter Dalwood Situationist Apartment May '68 2001 oil and chalk on canvas Tate, London |
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| Sandra Gamarra Page 70 2006 oil on canvas Tate, London |
from HIJA FOR EMERSON'S BIRTHDAY
I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen
who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein.
––President George W. Bush, Washington DC, May 25, 2004
. . . . . . . . . .
Or is it the rebellious, the disobedient,
Whose sisters' brothers died on our side near Samarra,
Without whom our world's (mostly) better off?
It's hard to tell, when they have veils. It's hard
To tell, when phantom limbs report again tomorrow,
Just whom we're better off without. Yet ask
Yourself: can we condemn "the vanity
Of false distinctions" in light of presidential Scripture?
"If thy right hand offend..." ––We must cut Matthew
Off quick as RFK, alas, in order
To go now to commercial. We're sorry. We're in the hands
Of the commercial. We leave you with this question:
Would our world be better off without Iraq
Itself? Or what about your simple self?
––A little better, you must mean, or worse?
––And what about our own bull-headed liars,
As Emerson might say? And the Milky Way ––
Better off without this blue-green pearl of Earth?
Yet who could tell? And if no one could tell...
What can we mean by tell? Now that's a simple question.
– Stephen Yenser (2011)
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| Nathaniel Mellors Time Surgeon Performers' Mask 2007 lithograph Tate, London |
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| Allen Ruppersberg Honey, I rearranged the collection to remind everyone that the original definition of a curator was: A guardian of a minor, lunatic; a person who has a cure of souls 2001 screenprint Tate, London |
Poems from the archives of Poetry (Chicago)