This work is the distribution of 16 Staples-bought plastic no smoking signs in the galleries of the Whitney Museum. It cost $30 to make. I generally think of the Whitney Biennial (any biennial) as a huge collective exercise, where the co-existence of artists and the dialogue between works is and should be key, but isn’t always that easy in the cubicle environment where so much is at stake.
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.
Dave Muller’s reaction, perhaps the most productive, was to make a drawing of the sign and incorporate it into his wall-based palindrome piece. He initially offered this drawing to me as a gift, and on his inventory it is listed as being in my ‘collection’. But now he says a collector bought his whole installation, my drawing and my sign included, so I guess we will need to figure that out.
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. I think the works’ validity is in its reflection on authority, and on the acceptance of authority as it is manifested in New York City, the US and all over the world by our generation right now.
If anything, this is a nostalgic nod to the bohemian and perhaps 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 have noticed how prohibitive regulations are quietly instilled and neutralized, made almost positive or transparent.
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.
Click on the thumbnails for larger views.
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