Dear Noah,
Thank you for your generosity. Creating the free desert museum in Joshua
Tree, California provided my family with the honor of experiencing your
immersive art in the expanse, rather than in typical white rooms, although the sculptures
would be striking there too.
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| Corrugated structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Having the Drinking Fountains positioned near the
entrance creates a heart-breaking context for the entire collection. Have the fountains ever had running
water? Providing drinking water at the site would cause disturbing interactions with those works.
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| Drinking Fountain Installation referencing "Separate but Equal" facilities. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_but_equal |
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| Detail of "Colored Water Fountain," referencing "Separate but Equal" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separate_but_equal |
How would it feel to drink there? Privileged, outraged; what about guilt, rebellion, spewing, and trouble...? The fountains are a volatile work with unmistakable content. They influenced all of my thinking as I
wandered through the rest of the artworks.
Ouch.
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| Entropic sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Feelings of personal and cultural devastation hung over me throughout
your acreage. These are amplified by the
years of entropy, wind, and gravity that pull and twist the works to the earth in
your absence.
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| Figure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Did you intend for the
gradual effects of time to continue to fashion the works? They work with your assemblage techniques,
pushing the feeling of a life endured under institutionalized degradation; not
from an overt system like prison, but our culture. My culture.
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| Entropic sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
As an artist I understand the joy of making, the freedom and rush as artworks come together, and how they can change by adding a new part. I appreciate the gratification of being absorbed in creating.
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| Stack of chairs by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
But I believe that we express ourselves from the abundance of our heart. Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder haunt your imagery?
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| Metal sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The idea of using anything at hand to create a shelter,
wiring it together, piecing…the urgency of your creation speaks of desperation,
of using anything to pull life together.
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| Structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Ultimately, what's inside us is what we have to work with. Your power, outrage, sorrow, compassion, and urgency,
conjure up images of shanty towns, homeless encampments, southern Appalachian hovels.
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| Structure Interior by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| Steel sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The metal arrangements relate the message abstractly. As linear structures they are
entropic, slouching compositions, but they communicate social
injustice as a part of the whole installation.
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| Aluminum sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
As
abstractions they are dystopian; but in context with the house-like installations they
are direct and real. Dystopia is a
philosophy, but your life experience takes this body of work beyond words.
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| Stick sculpture by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| House structure by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
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| Ground arrangement by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
The heaps, whether stockpiles or installations that may have collapsed, are a sad but potent
conclusion in themselves.
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| Ground arrangement by Noah Purifoy, c. 1987-2004 |
Piles of stuff for future use, or trade, creates an environment
of disorder. I have seen crushing
poverty operate the same way while in ministry in southern Appalachia.
(Maybe I’m the one with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.)
Sincerely,
James
