One of my favorite pieces of all time
Featuring S.A. with a mayonnaise sandwich ...and a toothbrush
In a plastic bag
Encased in plexiglass or resin
I first encountered this art one day back in the late 80s in his apartment on Vermont
It occurred at the same time that I read the sign he had on his wall
"Choose to be Stupid"
This is at his Avenel Gardens apartment
I just love it that he is so relaxed
Perhaps he is thinking of Bukowski, cats and wine
I think that Scott had passed away
Or maybe this was just before
And he was speaking about Scott
And he misses Scott and he loves Scott
2 comments:
This was an amazing comment by S.A. and I have to post this publicly for now...
The sandwich piece was created for one of the Jack Kerouac's Birthday Party performances, specifically at the Onyx Echo. I think that it was 1995, I was still living on Vermont at the time. Used to have annual performance shows every year on or about Kerouac's March 12th birthday. The piece has a mayonnaise on Wonder Bread sandwich inside with a plastic toothbrush and the non-sequitor "instant ridiculousness" (on a slip of paper kind of like a Chinese fortune) all inside a plastic sandwich baggie. I gave these away at the door to all who came, each baggie had the same stuff in it, however, the each had a different non-sequitor.
Jack Kerouac was notorious for carrying a toothbrush around in his shirt pocket. His first wife Edie Parker said that one of the reasons she divorced him was because she didn't want to spend the rest of her life subsisting on mayonnaise on white bread sandwiches (they were still rather poor when they divorced). And of course, Kerouac is also considered one of the masters of spontaneous "stream of consciousness" bop-prosody. This bag I had given to Mike Mollett, who had kept it awhile and then surprised me a few weeks later giving it back to me. I kept it for months more. Freezing it, then thawing and letting it mold... back and forth until it was completely disgusting.
See my posting on Kerouac in the "relation to author series" for a more extensive view.
See your own decapitations of Saga-cupcakes ca. 1987 for more extensive evidence of playing with food as a matter of setting consciousness back into its stream.
As for art, it is unknowable.
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