A few months ago, we got a really nice ceramic thing in the office mail. It was rectangular, with a spiky top – a bit like a cartoon of a brown paper bag, or an outline of Bart Simpson’s head. Across the top, it read “666” in big numerals – in the middle, “VI VI VI” and at the bottom, the same, only in italics.
These sorts of things aren’t unusual in the mail we get, when scrawled on paper or as part of a collage made of magazine clippings and Polaroid photos. But this was a nice piece of work – expertly glazed, with a mount for hanging, and signed “GoLLy” on the back. Packed carefully to avoid breakage. A mad potter, then.
Nobody else at work wanted the thing – a little creepy, could be anthrax tainted, yadda yadda. So now it’s hanging out in my laundry room.
Then, yesterday, a friend at the Weekly World News got this letter, with a couple photographs included.
Here’s the letter:
August 03
Hey all you Apoca-teers out there in TV Land!
Please allow me to re-introduce myself. My name is GoLLy, and I am a folk/shock artist. For the past couple of years, I’ve been conducting a study of the interaction between the news media and terrorists around the world. Do the two have a symbiotic relationship? Bloody scenes of terrorist acts cause TV-news ratings and newspaper sales to skyrocket. The political views of the terrorist are told to the world in return for his sacrifice. The cost is violence, suffering, and lost human life.
I began to wonder if it would be possible to gain front-page status for political purposes, terrorist style, minus one key ingredient, violence. Esoteric-terrorism was born, non-violent terrorism for the new millennium. I am devoted to this cause. Could the fruit bowl indeed be mightier than the bomb? I’ve sent ceramic sculpture to art museums all over the world, ‘Uni-Potter’ style. Venice, Tokyo, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Bilbao, San Francisco, Fort Worth, Stockholm, Hartford, and many more, have all been “hit.” Thousands of politically charged “manifestos” have been sent to world famous art museums, international art publications, and important art galleries, as well as to editors and reporters of many New York City newspapers like the Times, Post, Village Voice, Press, and Onion. Without the magic ingredient of bloodshed to satisfy the carnivorous imaginations of these editors, non-violent terrorism is considered irrelevant. That’s right folks! Non-violent = not fit to print. Perhaps this realization will help us better understand the motives behind the actions of the real terrorists.
The American Folk Art Museum is the 25th art institution I’ve “hit”. The longer it takes the news media to realize their responsibility to report my unique struggle for peace, the greater proof of their complicity in the escalation of terrorism. Sad, isn’t it? Despite the occasional glimmer of recognition, such as my “soon to be famous-ish” sobriquet from the New York Press, I continue to struggle for the visibility of my cause. I take heart in the tacit approval given my work by Toby Kamps, Director of the MOCA San Diego, who keeps the piece with which I “hit” his museum on display in his office. I live and work in the hop that other enlightened members of the art community soon will share his keen insight.
Please take a look at some fresh new work from a still relatively unknown folk/shock artist. You are always welcome to visit the studio and gallery where I do my ceramic work: Union Square Ceramic Center, 7 East 17th Street, 8th floor, Manhattan.
Have a nice Apocalypse!
GoLLy
P.S. The mark of the beast is a computer chip placed under your skin!
P.P.S. Check out my ceramic fruit bowls in the latest Payless Shoes commercial!
The photos include a nice a nice snap of GoLLy (or so his tattoo says) surrounded by packages marked “fragile” with various addresses on them, and a nice display case of ceramics – primary themes being bar codes and demonic faces. I really love one piece in particular, with smiley-face daisies... with really sharp, triangular teeth.
So – as far as manifestos go, how's this one stack up? Is this Ontological Terrorism with a new face? Or just a sales scheme? Anybody else run into GoLLy or his work? |
