43.2.

Thing, I like.

    The word thing and or Thing. It can be vague, careless even and yet it has the capability to talk of some considered stuff. Yes, I also care for Stuff and or stuff. They are also all very good looking words, as is Odd.

    Anyhow, what is in [a] thing? Obviously there is Thing Theory (where we learn that an object can and, under suitable circumstances, does become [a] thing).

    There is Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing, the Fantastic Four’s The Thing and John Carpenter’s sci-fi classic The Thing. Dinges is Riaan Cruywagen’s favourite Afrikaans word und nicht zu vergessen das Ding.

    Yes, there are many many Things and things. The word’s agility, its slipperiness can be off-putting.

    Things can be dangerous. And things are looking up and things are going to be alright and things are good. Barack Obama likes making and doing things… as he puts it “We built this country by making things…” and “We proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things...”.      (2012-05-13)

19.5.

The thing that is more useless than a useless thing is the thing that makes the useless thing. (2011-11-09)

plantsculpture 2002 - ongoing

plantsculpture 2002 - ongoing. photo : Brett Rubin

22.9.

Within the making of art I approve of extreme measures. Immersion. Abuse. Blind faith even. Be it irresponsible boating jaunts or talking people out of their wedding bands I find these bent trajectories to be a place of learning and a productive place.                (2010)

22.2.

The truth is out there. There is no truth here.

Once you go there you will see that there is no real truth there either. Please do not be mistaken…  

I did literally try to escape to Robben Island. Admittedly I have been trying to get away but not from a physical location. The rowing is incidental, don't focus on it as it offers little other than the obvious. Blur your vision and look around it, look behind it. Even better don't look, think. 

-7.8.

My parents, Dieter and Gail, have a peach and it never ages.

It is really unreal with the fruit’s marble body gently blushed and bruised with pigment, and in its navel nestles the clincher: a real wooden stem… here lies a peach.

When I first touch it I am touched by it, am taken by its ability to convince me and then convince me otherwise.

Here stands something that is and is not, it agrees and disagrees.

This peach, this thing holds a moment when the idea of Truth is questioned.

I am unmistaken and mistaken, I believe and unbelieve.                                            (2012-02-07)

6.3.

duumviri 

(Lat duumvir, "one of the two men"; in plural originally duoviri, "the two men") 

42.

50 in 2020. 60 in 2030. 70 in 2040. 80 in 2050. 90 in 2060. 100 in 2070. 110 in 2080. 120 in 2090…

35.

grow square tomatoes                           (2012)

45.

curation as experiment                        (2004)

27.

making things (right)                     (2012)

45.3.

GREED

greedy |ˈgrēdē|

adjective ( greedier , greediest )

having or showing an intense and selfish desire for something, esp. wealth or power : greedy thieves who plundered a defense contractor.

• having an excessive desire or appetite for food.

DERIVATIVES

greedily |-dəlē| adverb

greediness noun

ORIGIN Old English grǣdig, of Germanic origin.

THE RIGHT WORD

The desire for money and the things it can buy is often associated with Americans. But not all Americans are greedy, which implies an insatiable desire to possess or acquire something, beyond what one needs or deserves (: greedy for profits). Greedy is especially derogatory when the object of longing is itself evil or when it cannot be possessed without harm to oneself or others (: a reporter greedy for information).

Someone who is greedy for food might be called gluttonous, which emphasizes consumption as well as desire (: a gluttonous appetite for sweets).

285.

Can we talk? Somewhere not too public, not to private either. Here is good enough... I have growing pains, it feels like my heart is breaking. I am getting jammed in the crease, the whelm. I am gasping grasping too often. So, I have recognised that there is a problem. I have acted on it, been dealing with it. I am working on it. It being working with myself. I am actualising things, beautiful simple things with complex innards. My tertiary education is over, no more collaboration for me at least not in the sense that I have pursued working with others. I am doing with what I have, very doable. Hard as fuck. While I am in this unbecoming state of becoming I am finding that working placates the mind. Everyone and everything seems unreliable. The second guessing creeps in and replaces thinking twice all to often. As if I pictured a different life. I have always done my own thing because I don't belong, it has been good being on the experiential innovative side. (but) Now I feel it, the not belonging. Nowhere. Seriously. Sleep evades me, tears appear. Its not like I strive to belong but this alien feeling is tiring. Not my finest hours but it's a productive transition period.                (2011-05-07)

92.2.

I = 1 iff it is wearing its hat and shoe.
Freed up from these items it could be many things. (2009-02-22)

Something Something.
Research Art Cape Town, 19/10/2011

33.1.

To Whom It May Concern:

Thinking is a good idea.  I strive to create works and situations that encourage us (not only us as in the art community but also the public at large) to think again and think ahead.  I try to be thoughtful, to be human and to make public these insights and ways of dealing with living in the now. 

For me, working through art is a way and a place to interrogate and reveal the idea of Truth.  It is not only about hard facts but also the poetry of time, life, death, transformation, desire, rebellion, freedom, and conscious and unconscious choice.  The Truth is more erratic than we care to know.  Fortunately works of art are expected to say what they have to say and also accommodate multiple interpretations.

I have spent the past decade working with others, primarily in Johannesburg and Cape Town, in an intense collaborative learning exercise of my own making.  Aside from learning how to make and represent things, I have been privy to diverse conceptual practices that have enabled me to tackle life from a nonjudgmental and paraconsistent stance.  I have also come to know the value of what can come from relinquishing myself to the relationship knowing that our combination would conjure up a third voice; this peculiar voice that whispers ‘unnecessary solutions’.  I have been surprised, endured growing pains and been empowered by these and other co-operative actions which in turn have helped me to move on from being merely a white South African male; I am not myself and this is a good thing.  If you are a chancer, as I am, this is the place you want to be.  Knowing I will emerge loving my neighbour in ways I never expected. Stripped bare by all the stumbling I grow a more able, more considerate, more thoughtful, if not slightly bent, self.  All I need is courage and the willingness to forget everything.

My work encourages me to be not merely innovative and build on what exists but to be inventive and to be open to ‘uncalled-for newness’.  I can only assume that what I share inspires others to open up.  If not, it is at least a series of examples of mindful artistic experimentation, and proof that one needs neither deadlines nor a belief system to make and do things.                                           (2012-05-11)

2.1.         

THE THING IN 

BREATHING      

[2012-05-11]

      18.3.

NOTHING

IS

UNACCEPTABLE

(2012-07-11)