#44 - Light of Ray
It's easy to get lost in the world of Ray Johnson's collages and mail art. Punny, clever, odd, disconcerting, these images are like secret code. But you don't need the password to be let in on the espionage. All you need is a good sense of the absurd, a bit of compassion, some wonder, and a willingess to think of perversity and innocence as close companions.
There is a handshake and a wink in these often deadpan works of art as they collapse oppositions into their powerful whirl: they are humble yet arrogant, meaningless and meaningful, available yet beguiling, peaceful yet deeply disturbing, at once happy and sad. Their figures -- silhouettes, magazine cut-outs, words, lines, shapes all quiver with the energy of objects and materials at first intensely, obsessively crafted -- then, in the hands of friends, left to their own devices.
For more on the life and art of Ray Johnson, check out the wonderful documentary film, How To Draw a Bunny.
12 January 2005