THYME: As the first flurries fall from the sky this season today I ask what do you think of year-end polls? Everyone seems to have them. Be it fashion, film, frivolity. Are they merely favoritism barely disguised as popularity contests, scraping the barrel of half-hearted pr campaigns, or in some cases perhaps even earnest opportunities to look back at how that particular annum charted new territory? They must have their place. In years past I even created these but found in short order that they became dated when the dusty scrapbook got hauled out even a few years hence. So this year I am not making such a ‘Greatest Hits’ comp. I am more interested in how things that surfaced this year carry forth into the next. That’s a true ‘test of time’, yes?

SAGE: Sometimes when you take a step back, outside of your daily go-go-go you come to realize that taking certain things into account can be either a benefit or a deficit. In years such as MMIX we were globally effected and our normal gaze or expectations have shifted, and been challenged, and even to an extent remained a bit (or >) askew. I sit and listen to Bowie’s Hunky Dory and it rings of leaving the encrusted stacks of past regression right there, leaving only the sweet melodies for future reference (is this record really 38 years old?). I mention this because this is a record, of the time (as Laurie Anderson once crooned). Stand by….

ALLSPICE: In 2009 I came to realize several things about where I am on Earth right now. Hey, I bought a French press, I took a new lover into my life (simultaneously, miraculously losing eight pounds in the process - that’s a first), left one gallery and found new representation - and again having to face the challenge of re-locating live/work space. These things take much concerted effort, passion and conviction, trial and error and most of all perseverance and a whole lot of patience. As I take a scant look back, in 2009 I was published in a worldwide hardcover, got the opportunity to exhibit with the likes of Dan Graham, Candida Höfer and Gordon Matta-Clark (among others), and had my first exhibition in Miami and a potential museum purchase! I chose to take an unspecified hiatus from critical writing (except in bits and pieces herein this blog which comes to an official close at year end) and curated an exhibition now touring the Northwest. Not bad (…I’ll spare you those details).

So, yeah, life is like a spice rack, and sometimes parenthetical. As we step forth we all try new things, of course, traverse prerequisite scary passages, with the potential to come out the other end either covered in a certain layer of soot or befitted in the Emperor’s New Clothes. Well, there’s always the grey area of the in-between, ya dig? I’d say it’s certainly still worth the risk, even when life is conditional as is. All things in due time.

Tags: 2009, 2010, Beyond Trend, Hunky Dory, New Year, Of Other Spaces

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 29th, 2009 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Daily Grind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.