16 Staples-bought plastic no smoking signs were distributed and hung around the galleries of the Whitney Museum. This piece cost $30 to make.
I wanted to make something that could take the collective tension out of the air by negotiating a place with the other pieces there. The actual placement of each sign came from engaging with the other artists, who had a say in where the sign would appear in relation to their works. Some people didn’t like having the work near theirs, in which case it wouldn’t be hung, and others put it right in the middle of their works.
It has been mentioned to me that No Smoking is a form of Institutional Critique, and I agree that there may be an element of that, but only insofar as the issues summoned here reproduce a reality in the city at large. I don’t really care that much about the institution itself—more about it as a carrier for bigger messages. What I wanted to do was to reflect on authority, and on the acceptance of authority as it is manifested in New York City by my own generation.
We are cast as the consumer generation, looking with nostalgia towards the bohemian, more indulgent and frivolous cultures of the past. But I may be wrong about that. In any case, having lived in NYC for 15 years, I did notice how prohibitive regulations are quietly instilled and neutralized, made almost positive or transparent.
This was the year that so the non-smoking ban being implemented in NYC, following at the heels of the dance ban in bars. I saw it all vanish without much protest and the fact that almost no one seems to even notice this work shows how comfortable we have become in being told what not to do, even in the most absurd conditions.
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