Precaution

  I often wonder... What if the walls of an art institution suddenly disappeared? What if its entire content became exposed? All at once.
I can only imagine for a moment the comical confusion this would cause…
What if all those dead or forgotten projects accumulated over the years, and the enormous pile of donated and acquired art kept behind closed doors all these years suddenly became visible? Would it be possible to comprehend the enormity of this ever-growing mass called “collection”? Where does it all go? How much more stuff can an art institution absorb? Does it stand on the edge of a gaping black hole where everything disappears quietly?
How can the walls hold up so much dead weight?
How can the grounds withstand such an implosion?
Despite these far-fetched thoughts, we can still agree that most museums are far from being cultural bastions. In fact they are quite vulnerable. Art institutions that cater to the public at large, as well as museums that remain accessible to everyone, are becoming extinct. The ones that are left standing need to brace themselves against the overwhelming forces of conflicting goals.

Loss

  A good portion of an artist’s work never gets to see the daylight.  In fact there is a considerable amount of waste in most creative processes.  In the course of such processes, the artist selects what to discard, abandon, leave out, or keep, and eventually, this is what shapes his or her career.  What stays becomes the artist’s body of work, which in turn, goes through many more rounds of selective processes, this time by others’ who will make or break the artist’s career.  But there is another kind of waste, one much harder to stomach, that is the LOSS of art resulting from negligence and recklessness.  Countless artworks are destroyed due to insufficient protection during transportation and relocation, while many more are slowly destroyed in inadequate storage spaces often overcrowded with unseen work waiting to be seen, work waiting to be sold, or with sold work waiting to gain value.  Such loss is total; it can never be remedied despite all the monetary settlements offered to compensate the value of its price tag.  This remains a painful subject for artists who chose to keep damaged art over compensations, however foolish this may seem.  I have seen some of my work turn into waste during the course of my career, among which a few I have not been able to part with.  These unfortunate pieces have fueled my desire to grant them a one-time opportunity for proper attention, the kind I once thought they deserved; a short-lived remedy before they get discarded for good.