Exasperations
November – December 2019

Notes on “Exasperations”

Exasperate, irritate, frustrate, infuriate, irk, vex, piss off…from the Latin exasperatus – “to roughen.”

unspoken agendas. In the half-light of “alternative facts”, they question the never ending

contingency of truth and falsehood.

They exist in the oblivion of the present: I FORGET WHAT I FORGOT.

In the endless echo inside the bubble: BLAH, BLAH, BLAH.

In the constant insults to reason and logic: IT COULD BE WORSE.

In the disgust with half truths and outright lies: I’VE HAD IT UP TO HERE.

In the inauthenticity across the entire political spectrum: LOOK WHO’S TALKING.

And in the contempt with it all: ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?

However, ambiguity immediately plagues any effort to say what one means and mean only what one says.

This is where painting asserts its unique ability to materially embody contradictory ideas.

Words smeared, smudged, obscured, sometimes backwards, sometimes upside down. Double takes, repetitions, reversals, self-mockery... the textual disintegrating into a cacophony of voices.

Yes, but are they funny?