I Love Everything Rock 'n' Roll (Except the Music), 1997

Media:

Grocery bags that flew into my front yard, songs I wrote for them, spray paint, acrylic, pencil, pastel, frame

44” x 42”

b/w

Everybody Hates the President

Lunch bag that flew into my front yard, songs I wrote for it, spray paint, acrylic, frame

9” x 7”

Factory Girl

Beer can bag that flew into my front yard, songs I wrote for it, cardboard, spray paint, acrylic, frame

6” x 6”

About the Work:

For years, I watched the weather, the wind, the trash that blew through my front yard. I became curious if there was a common material that tended to get caught in the grass, against a tree trunk, limb, or jagged rock. I narrowed it to one thing: bags. Lots of bags, a not-so-hidden ecosystem of disposability circling the globe. To someone, at some point, they were useful—and then they weren’t. They had a story to tell, a song to hum, the blues that arise from constant departure. I decided to “reunite” a “family” of bags and waited for the different varieties to fly through my yard. I wrote and sang songs for each, painting the lyrics on their bodies, an imaginary story about the rise and fall of an endlessly touring, burned-out rock band.

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