mixed media on vellum, ITIN ’05
Nobody ever gets a ghost with the bright idea that a ghost would be a right handy thing to come off just about now. Ghosts show up when they are least expected and most unwanted. It is their nature and their right. Who can second guess the dead?
Those of us who have met the dead know they are volatile and erratic, like smoke. Jean-Michel Basquiat is about to have a retrospective at the Brooklyn Museum and it reminds me of the time I accidentally channeled his spirt for about three, or four days after doing a drawing performance in D.C. It was called A Bash Fit For a King. It was a lot of fun and also truly terrifying. There is a line in Swimming to Cambodia where Spalding says, “I suddenly knew what killed Marilyn Monroe.”
Well after living as SWIGGER a.k.a. the Swiss Nigger – a name given me by John Seed, Basquiat’s L.A. studio assistant and Valet who was called White Sambo by J.M.B…Swigger was my haunted character’s name during a painting performance(odd that J.M.B’s band with Vince Gallo was called GRAY….like a half white half black ghost…or like Spalding) – I couldnt get out of character…shed the ghost…stop being SWIGGER for days. It cost me my job at Pearl Paint (a job I hated I grant you… but you can’t work retail as a crazy half negro ghost) – Anyway, long story short: I know what killed Jean-Michel Basquiat.
I am looking forward to seeing the show…I just hope SAMO haunts some other poor fool this time.
I bring it up because the film Basquiat was on during lunch (kim chee noodle soup) and it made me think: “Hey this is the best damn painting Schnabel ever made.”
You know, it’s not a painting, it’s a film, but what’s the difference these days? I suppose he misses a lot about J.M.B., but it always looks and sounds great and that is enough for eating noodle soup with a wounded hound at your foot.
That and Gary Oldman is a better Schnabel than Schnabel….but Bowie’s a pretty good Warhol too. So let’s all go to Pittsburg! You don’t have to go to Europe anymore, you can just go to Piiitsbuuurg.
And if you come to Brooklyn, I might recomend you visit Green-Wood Cemetary (see below) and bring flowers for the man. I understand he loved lotus blossoms and poppies among other things.