There was a work of art on diplay once, I don't remember where. Something contemporary. It's a piece that was strangely simple and striking at the time and has stuck with me ever since. It made me think and feel, and it had strange relevance to my life. Still does.
Two stacks of paper sat on the ground in an open space. Large pieces of paper, retangular and poster-sized, each stack 2-3 feet high. One stack contained copies of a white poster, completely white, with the words "Somewhere better than this place" in tiny, black, Times New Roman letters in the center. The other stack was nearly identicle, but contained entirely black posters with "Nowhere better than this place" printed right smack in the middle in tiny, white, Times New Roman letters. Visitors were encouraged to take a poster, or take one of each. A study in human behavior, human needs, human desires, the modern world. The stack of white posters, promting onlookers to think of "somewhere better than this place," or perhaps grumble that somewhere HAS to be better than this place, was almost a foot shorter than its more optimistic kin that proclaimed subtly that nowhere was better than this place.
I took the white one.
The restless poster, the wanderer poster, the malcontent poster. Does "somewhere better than this place" really exist anywhere, wherever you are? I have moved from Ohio to Montana to Scotland to Colorado and through so many places across the world with the poster in mind, with the art, the statement, the study, the taller stack of "Nowhere better than this place"-es in mind, and if I still had it in its physical form, I'd have it framed and put it on my wall. Is everyone looking for "somewhere better than this place?" Are we all just in transit, with our little white posters tucked under our arms, waiting for "this place" to fall to the wayside and to stumble into "nowhere better?"
Or is perhaps "Nowhere Better" the negative poster, the malcontent poster, the pessimistic poster, declaring that nowhere is better because nowhere is good, that every place is just as miserable as the next... And "Somewhere Better" must exist because there is good out there...
It was just... something that sticks with you.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I remember this exhibit at the Contemporary Art Center and how "taken" you were with the posters. And wondering which interpretation you would fix on with the poster you chose. I could see the contradicting possibilities of each poster and knew you were not happy with your home town. But I hoped that you would one day find the place where you could say you were happy to be. Some people can say that they can find happiness anywhere they are, especially if they are with people they love. Then, you didn't have that love in your life. Now that you do, my hope is that you can find that happiness even if you aren't yet in the place you want to be.
Post a Comment