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Patti Smith Was Right
these cold, known objects
are not very likeable
aluminium frames
& curved glass with optical tricks
but I am at ease
at this show,
there are some nice little-grin ideas
like television
screening outside
on the suburban homes front lawn,
& time-delay verité videos
to amuse the usually uncrackable
hardened gallery-goer
*
have I flipped ? into a strangely placid
political zone a lack of clutter
and environmental concern
these things are so simple,
two hours here & I begin to enjoy
Dan Graham
more than Soutine, Braque, Delaunay,
Bourgeois, Basquiat, Sherrie Levine,
Agnes Martin although
I can not deny my memory
of her beautiful mid-1960s picture
Milk River
nor her small collection
of pick-up trucks
glinting with polish all driveable
& parked
outside her desert home.
*
I spend over an hour watching,
surrendering to
Dan Grahams big Rock/God video
that makes a simple
anthropological connection
between US tribal & religious ritual
group dancing, shaking, speaking in tongues-
and mosh pits and rock music
so when Patti Smith sings
Jesus died for somebodys sins
but not mine
I am converted.
*
Patti Smith was right,
twenty-five years ago,
to say that rock music,
meaning, then, for her, punk-rock,
would replace painting
& sculpture
as representative of untranscended
life itself.
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