Diego Rivera Gallery May 2003
A performance / exhibition occured
in May 2003 at the Diego Rivera Gallery.
I was available to provide the service of writing letters of
recommendation for people for one week. I was located in the
gallery and people could sign up for a one hour interview with
me for any time that week. After each interview I composed a
letter based on our discussions. The same questions were asked
of every interviewee. These questions cannot be revealed to
anyone but interviewees.
The letter of recommendation may be
used for anything and may be copied. I will sign and mail copies
if envelopes, addresses and postage are provided.
The following is a sample letter of
recommendation.
October 19, 2002
To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter in recommendation
of Chris. I have known Chris as a fellow art student, artist,
and art administrator for the last 5 years. We have never been
close friends, nor have we ever been particularly friendly for
that matter, but I have attended most of his exhibitions, public
presentations, and projects as he has attended most of mine
and there has always undoubtedly been mutual respect for one
another.
Chris is a “good man”.
All appearances suggest that he is exceptionally well-adjusted,
intelligent, well-meaning, and sensitive to the world around
him. Chris’ strong ideals, conscientious commitment to
them, and unflagging energy to carry out that commitment has
often made me feel like deeply inferior piece of useless refuse,
but the grace with which he carries himself in relation to others
tends to dissipate any feeling of unease others may feel in
direct relationship to him. Chris has always been approachable
and easy to relate to on a personal level, and while he never
got as unruly and drunk as I did in many of our social encounters,
his humble human way spiked with tender teasing has always facilitated
interesting exchanges between us.
Chris does not believe that there is
a god that he can rely on, appeal to, or curse and be annoyed
with. He does, however, wish that there was one for him to engage
with; I get the sense that Chris has left room for spiritual
development and that he might at some time develop a relationship
to some sense of “higher power”. I feel that his
sense of doubt and universal homelessness, is not giving rise
to pessimism or cynicism, but is helping him along to remain
open in the world looking for the locations of connectedness.
Chris loves animals. He is not a nut
about loving animals, but his engagement with them holds a great
deal of pathos and some mystery nature magic. Chris relates
better with dogs than cats because he feels that dogs are closer
to language than cats. He is anxious to have an animal but wants
to be sure that he be in the position to have enough time to
properly care for one before he runs out and gets one. Chris
looks for wild animals frequently when in nature, and when he
sees them he feels like he gets to see them because he has a
special vibration which is in tune with that of the animal's.
His emotions tell him that the animal has come to him so that
they can commune and mutually appreciate one another, yet his
logic wishes to spurn this idea as anthropomorphizing posh.
But Chris is tender with himself and allows this crack in the
intellect to remain untarnished by logic or contemporary thought
- this is my favorite thing about Chris, the thing I would not
have guessed, the inconsistency which makes him lovely.
Chris loves his parents less than I
would have expected, they were not available to him as a child
and have not supported his chosen field of work as whole heartedly
as he would have liked them to. Even though he has affected
a separation between them and himself, most of his engagements
in the world still are very much determined by his desire to
please them and he does not feel too bad about this. He gets
the sense that the system of morals he has adopted from them
is probably the only one he will ever have, and if it crosses
purposes with pleasing them - better that than feeling tortured
and naughty all the time.
Chris is not able to easily forgive
himself things and he does not feel that he is able to adequately
love others. Things bother him a great deal. He holds himself
culpable for the smallest of infractions of his own code that
seems to be masochistically rigid. While he understands his
expectations of self to be unreasonably harsh and demanding,
he can’t stop being haunted by self-recrimination. It
may sound here as though he might be rendered unstable and dysfunctional
by guilt, but in all actuality, I believe that it lends him
his beautifully human aspect and that he negotiates this terrain
far more fluidly than he verbally gives himself credit for.
I cannot recommend Chris highly enough.
He is a conscientious crusader with a humanity which tussles
in the gutter alongside so many of our own. He is kind, intelligent,
and a delight to speak with. Chris really cares about things
and is kind to children, animals and parents too. Please give
him your full consideration.
Sincerely Yours,
Goody-B. Wiseman |
