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a blog with cultural bulimia.

Friday, February 13, 2004

the quietness in the ordinary

Questions for Robert Rauschenberg
What sort of photographs do you prefer?
I like photographs of anything uninteresting. Maybe just two doors on a wall.
How interesting.
You failed! The point is to be uninteresting. But you can have a second chance.
For half a century, you have been America's premier poet of the ordinary. The imagery in your latest paintings is culled from traffic signs, newspapers and billboards. What is so great about the ordinary anyhow?
It usually is ignored. It is overlooked. Most artists try to break your heart, or they accidentally break their own hearts. But I find the quietness in the ordinary much more satisfying.