#1,000

Erick Swenson, Untitled 2000, The Modern, Fort Worth

This seems to be my 1000th post* here at In Living Color - 1000 in just about exactly 5 years of blogging.  I was thinking I would write a fascinating retrospective but ... zzzzzz. Honestly, it would be boring.  Please.

Instead, let's have some footnotes.  I've been working on my TPM column, which is going to be about the artist Erick Swenson, and the disgusting  (but cool) stuff he has on exhibit at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas.  (The dog with cape above is at The Modern in Fort Worth, and isn't part of his disgusting oeuvre.)  The interesting thing (to me) is the way the Nasher exhibit connects with Colin McGinn's book The Meaning of Disgust.  The book sheds some light on what Swenson is up to, but the exhibit ultimately falsifies the theory in the book.  (You'll just have to read the column when it comes out.)

Anyway, for footnotes we have

1.  This fun article about where Swenson lives. Terrific! You even get to see what his bedroom looks like. I wonder about people, and especially wonder about the likes of Swenson. What must it be like for his girlfriend to see him hunched over a dead deer sculpture for 5 years? Sounds like she files it all under "Life with an Artist."

 2.  In the column I talk briefly about the toxicity theory of morning sickness which an author by the name of Margie Profet was putting forward in the 90s.  So I got to thinking "Whatever happened to Margie Profet?"  Well this is interesting!

3. The review of McGinn that I discuss--well, you just have to read it.  Nina Strohminger is very funny, but I think she underestimates McGinn's own sense of humor. I don't think The Meaning of Disgust is unintentionally funny, or at least the funniness of the book is not completely unintentional.

4. Yes, McGinn is worth reading too, as much as his theory is unbelievable. There are nevertheless some memorable insights in there.  "Shit, shockingly, is the sine qua non of the soul." Well, it's true! And other good stuff.

5. More Swenson images. I really like his artwork. 

* Including unpublished drafts and other detritus --