Bangkok, Thailand. 17 May, 2023.
Ah, May… may it be May forever, if only because I’m about to hit another wall at the end of May and it may be a hard one indeed. Giving April a run for its money, that’s what it’s doing. I will save my reasons why until a later date, at which I hope to expound in a more visual medium on the travails of the last few weeks. But I will say one thing: when you have a culture that doesn’t view lying as a major character flaw, and liars as to be shunned, then sooner or later you are gonna end up with this. (And alas, my home country is barreling towards a more dangerous version of same same but right at this moment, that’s not my complaint.)
OK, so what about the mayo? Hold it? Noooo, no no no, do not hold the mayo!
Today as I was dealing with my latest setback I couldn’t decide what to stuff into my own fat face in search of temporary comfort, but TiT as they say, so there were options and I opted for several of them. One of which was a “ham” and “cheese” “sandwich” – I expected the worst, of course. Budget airline fare.
But ya know what? It was awesome! And by awesome I mean terrible, but in a good way. A bit of hamlike substance and a bit of cheeselike substance – dare I say American Cheese? – glued to its breadlike outer layer with nothing less than addictive – yes, you guessed it – MAYONNAISE!
So there’s that.
And also, somewhere in a 4x4 (meters, natch) storage space somewhere in Budapest, there’s this:
Figure One, oil on plywood, Berlin 2010
I’ve had that painting on so many walls. Starting with its birthplace, in Winsstraße in Berlin. But also in Budapest in at least two, maybe three, maybe even four locations. The photo doesn’t do it justice, because I’m really bad at shooting artwork. (Except in the Niki de Saint Phalle way, I’m pretty OK at that as long as the range is close.)
But the thing is, this is also part of the embarrassingly large section of my work I should perhaps dub The Disturbing Room – because that’s what it will be in when the world wakes up to my genius and builds a museum in my honor on every single continent, and/or Elon Musk formally adopts me and names me XrostX.
I find myself trying to make less freaky work, only to end up making more freaky work, at least lately. But I will persist, for a reason as simple as it is complicating: most people don’t want to look at freaky shit every day, and that genius-recognition thing is probably not in the works just yet.
Some of my absolute favorite artists have made unfathomably brilliant work that, even if I were some Yakuza Shogun collecting on behalf of an Arab Sheikh and could thus acquire it for my endless gratification, I would not want to see every day before breakfast.
But hey – the next year will be amazing, and yield some great new art, it’s just a bit of a rough ride. พฤษภาคม can eff the eff off. Onward!