un-story

Court Lurie, Nexus #8, courtesy of Russell Collection, Austin, TX

We think we see with our eyes. We don’t. We see with our expectations.

So I like Court Lurie’s art because there is no expectation of narrative or story structure. Narrative gets spooned to us all day long framing our view, pulling about our emotions, puppet-stringed by the story teller. Ourselves perhaps.

We don’t just “do the dishes” —  we slog through dishes for the two hundredth time for our self-absorbed roommate, who only thinks of herself, just like when as a kid, latch key in hand, made supper and scrubbed through chores until the parents got home. Right now the dishes are little injustices we’ve hauled around through the timeline titled, “my life as a loner.” Suddenly a red plate goes crashing.  Or a mug rage-tossed over the balcony. Leaving a pottery shard pattern on the sidewalk.

These implicit historical narratives wriggle into the everyday, drip and eddy around. Wordless tangles of old tapes playing almost inaudibly in the background. Stories about everything we do. If you start to get emotional about picking out your outfit, or why the stapler is missing, or why you have to pick up those legos again, or why your boss is mean to you — search for the narrative you are telling that colors the event, that nets around and crumples you into an emotional wad.

What if we “un-story?” What if the boss is a bitch, because the boss is a bitch. What if we pick up the legos, because we are picking up the legos. What if our actions and events are not representative of a multilayer narrative that started in vitro?

If the roommate is a lazy ass-moocher, kick ’em to the curb. Lose the roommate, lose the self story.

Pick up a Court Lurie at the Russell Collection, April 6 – May 5, 2013.

Definitely a better roommate, but doesn’t do dishes either.