#1 an artwork i love
GDLP
For some reason, all my favourite artworks are by the same person, so thank you Ragnar Kjartansson. One of them is this.
In 2013, the Icelandic artist got The National to perform their song Sorrow live for SIX hours straight. No breaks, just singing and playing and dripping. I was not there. I was just starting at art school, I didn’t even know what MoMA PS1 was (it’s a gallery in New York. Oh and fun fact, me and Zarina travelled to NYC in 2018 and we went along to PS1 to visit but when we got there it was closed so we just laughed and left to continue getting lost in the subway, and pretended that we hadn’t gone all that way to see it - from Brooklyn to Manhattan or wherever. god bless us). Anyway, I saw this work when Kjartansson had a major solo show at the Barbican in London in 2016. I went to see that show twice! When do I EVER. On one of those visits, I was there in the gallery space where Sorrow was being shown when both the performance ended and the exhibition closed, all timed together, closed door. It felt right.
Ever since watching this, I’ve gotten into the routine of listening to songs on repeat. I do it so often now that I don’t notice it’s happening. If you like a song a lot, there is probably a 1 hour version of it on Youtube where someone has just copy and pasted it together. I like it a lot. It’s what poets do, sort of. Poets always repeat themselves. They repeat the same line until it becomes chorus, so the whole piece has a rhythm you can fall into step with. Sorrow again and again and again, just becomes itself on another level. Energy at the start that dips and then comes back, just as we do as audience and listener. So special. I love the lyrics too.
I know Ragnar is not responsible for the lyrics but he is just doing something that only artists seem to be able to do here. He’s pointing at a big famous band and he’s roping them into doing something unbelievable. Difficult and strange and completely unnecessary. I LOVE when artists do shit like that. No one else has the cheek, but artists do. It’s undermining for the subject but it’s completely empowering too, and I don’t know how that balance happens, and I love that I don’t get it. That balance is perfect in this durational performance and that is why it is an artwork I love.
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Sorrow found me when I was young
Sorrow waited, sorrow won
Sorrow, they put me on the pill
It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk
Don’t leave my hyper heart alone on the water
Cover me in rag and bone sympathy
‘Cause I don’t wanna get over you
I don’t wanna get over you
Sorrow’s my body on the waves
Sorrow’s a girl inside my cake
I live in a city sorrow built
It’s in my honey, it’s in my milk
Don’t leave my hyper heart alone on the water
Cover me in rag and bone sympathy
‘Cause I don’t wanna get over you
I don’t wanna get over you
Don’t leave my hyper heart alone on the water
Cover me in rag and bone sympathy
‘Cause I don’t wanna get over you
I don’t wanna get over you
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The video of this performance was online for ages in full but now I can only find a clip of the visuals, and the audio on its own. So here are the pieces I have. Maybe one day you’ll see the whole thing for yourself.