Newsletter #23 / March 29th
M U C H N E S S / Staying at home with Meryl Streep / Meg Ryan / Alice Notley / yourself
Thanks + gratitude to everyone who came and celebrated Grace Cuell’s Soft Landing on Thursday night. Below is a gallery tracking the install and opening, with more photos [of a higher calibre] by Tom Schulte to come.
This week’s letter looks at muchness, much of a muchness. How much is too much, can some take more muchness than others. Is there a degree of muchness that becomes superfluous, and we are sent back to the drawing board, with instructions from above/below to redesign our lives.
These are the questions that occupy my day.
In the time it has taken me to write this, a lockdown has been announced. So, rather than two songs to get you through the week, let’s have a playlist that can somehow toe the line between stay-at-home soft vibes and Aries-frequency power punches. These songs do well as an accompaniment to home-style pasta and aperitivo, mid-boardgame mood breaks, and showers in the heat of the day.
Oh, how muchness has already gone out the window! There remains, however, a muchness associated with collaborating with the most fiery star sign, or deigning to collaborate with a star sign at all.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006), OBVIOUSLY
HOW CAN ONE SHUT THEMSELVES IN DURING ARIES PEAK WAVES WITHOUT IT
Also, a bonus moment of appreciation of the many sweaters and good trousers of When Harry Met Sally (1989) that may only serve as inspiration if the weather DRIZZLES as predicted.
Alice Notley’s When I Was Alive
When I was alive
I wore a thin dress bare
shoulders the heat
of the white sun
and my black thin
dress did envelop me
till I was a shell
gladly and breeze
ruffled and filled
against good legs
the translucent fabric and my
heart transparent
as I walk toward Marion’s
and Helena’s as my
skirt empties and fills with
cooling air
From Brenda Hillman’s Cracks in the Oracle Bone (2006)—
FINALLY
We are looking for artists to add to the 2021 roster for the window! If you are looking for a wonderful way to champion the concept of public art, your art, or if you just like windows, go to ppsfora.com and have a read through what to compile in the proposal. These will be accepted on a rolling basis, there is no cut off date.
Specific info on the dimensions of the space can be found on the website.
We encourage everyone to apply - don’t worry if your idea is sketchy, we can help you fill it out 🧡
Public art is VERY COOL and also VERY IMPORTANT - help make West End a place of hot contemplation via the FORA window.
What FORA wants
The FORA newsletter seeks to bring forward the intertextuality that we reside in, and the inextricable ways in which art and life are linked. That is an obvious point, but one that must be constantly remarked upon, as it is one we are constantly surprised by. To be reminded of these circles is to be drawn back into the fold, equipped with the tools of thinking critically and acting compassionately.
pps/FORA is developed on the land of the Jagera and Turrbal peoples