Is this the prettiest Friday you can remember ever? I think so.
Tonight I work the door for my brother’s art show, Juxtaposition Arena.
It’s going to be really cool and I’m proud of my brother. He’s very proactive, very on it. For a lot of my life I’ve felt like I followed in his footsteps, in a good way. He moved to Colorado, I did too. He moved back to Chicago, I did too. He started to get his life together and move forward and make money, then I did too.
And now he’s the most proactive, artistic, intelligent person I know, and I’m proud.
One of his art pieces for Juxtaposition Arena got me thinking:
‘not doing’ is a story of a man sitting in contemplation of his inaction. Layered video and audio clips are algorithmically selected and manipulated to present an ongoing, non-repeating environment of variation.
It surprised me because the Hixx family has a long-standing belief that we are lazy and inactive, that we don’t do anything, that we prefer the couch to the outside world.
A few years ago, I was doing an improv exercise called “Suicides”. It’s a great game, everyone decides on a way to die, and then you perform it on stage. One in particular I remember was a woman who picked a song…like Send in the Clowns or something…and as she sang her sad song, she popped pills and drank wine, slowly but surely, so by the end of the song she was “gone”.
My suicide that I picked was dying from inaction. Dying in front of the television set, smoking and drinking and changing channels. My teacher at the time asked me what exactly what it was I died from, and I told her “from doing nothing”.
But this image of ourselves is a family myth. One we should no longer propagate. We are an amazing artistic family, moving forward and moving on. We walk each other into this false view, usually with some self-deprecating humor thrown in. I’m going to really try to stop thinking this way now, it’s not who we are, and if we keep saying it, we might just believe it.
And I’d be more than happy if I get to continue to step in my brother’s footsteps.
I’m so glad its Friday … more time for the couch.
One of my brother's art pieces, neat huh?
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