MIKE ASENTE: THE COLORS OF AT GV/AS - BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

Mike Assente, "Princess", camelhair wool, billiard wool, gingham, and satin fabrics

“Everyone is aware that life is parodic and that it lacks interpretation.
Thus lead is the parody of gold.
Air is the parody of water.
The brain is the parody of the equator.
Coitus is the parody of crime.”

Receiving the invite with its playful color swap notations, variations on prefabricated artificial skin tones of blush, flesh, and hot pink, erased comparison to Byron Kim and his racial profiling project. All the hues premixed, numbered, and generic.

Shortly before the show, The United States of America, deciding to “Go It Alone”, had invaded and occupied not only Afghanistan, but Iraq as well. The reasons presented for these extreme actions? First to find those responsible for 9/11, and second to pre-empt an eminent threat. Today Bin Laden's whereabouts remain unknown. Saddam Hussein's whereabouts remain unknown, and weapons of mass destruction have never been found.

Our troops wait like sitting ducks to be picked off one at a time.

“Disasters, revolutions, and volcanoes do not make love with the stars.
The erotic revolutionary and volcanic deflagrations antagonize the heavens.
As in the case of violent love, they take place beyond the constraints of fecundity.
In opposition to celestial fertility there are terrestrial disasters, the image of terrestrial love
without escape and without rule, scandal, and terror.”*

Asente has concentrated on the sphincter for many years, demonstrating patience and commitment to a difficult and taboo subject. The centerpiece to his show, titled “Princess”, consists of a column made up of eleven camel hair cushions casually stacked. Each the same rectangular size and shape with meticulous piping and zippers. On top rests a precious pink and white satin and silk pillow, in the shape of a stylized flower. The princess and the pea story. The delicate virginal anus anticipates with monumental sensitivity, disruption from sleep.

We, as Americans, can only be sadomasochists. Those who cheated the Democratic process lie to us. Their popularity grows. We are collectively fucked up the ass and our children too for generations to come, and yet rush to re-elect them.
Only the anus can symbolize the brutality of these men.
Asente's pillow takes the form of a psychedelic flower offering itself for the picking: a place where one might rest one's head to relax and escape the terrible realities circling our consciousness. This pillow however offers little comfort.

Aron Namenwirth
Brooklyn, NY
2003

*Bataille, Georges. "Visions of Excess" The solar Anus Selected Writings, 1927 - 1939, 1985