Thursday, February 18, 2010

To Arouse Secrets: The Visceral Magic of Robert Rauschenberg



Robert Rauschenberg's exuberant, quiet, sloppy, painstaking, organic, sensual, spiritual Combines entered my life during my now-somewhat-infamous days living in the East Village in New York. They perfectly captured and enhanced the major alchemical powers I needed to (barely) get through those challenging years. Shamanic totems, they channeled me through simplicity in the midst of sophistication. I have gotten a visceral charge of joy and power from my encounters with them ever since—most recently in 2005, touring the Met's retrospective of the Combines in the company of Charles Altieri, delightful friend and brilliant literary critic.

The letter above is posted by way of thanks to Rauschenberg—and as a reminder that I aim to "not feel shame in my joy nor regret or fright in history."

3 comments:

Bethan said...

Hello Annie !

What a wonderful blog. Very informative and interesting. Thank you.

I've just started a Pagan/Witch/Celtic book blog...

http://witchbookstore.blogspot.com/

Blessings,

Bethan ( from Snowdonia, Wales ).

Magaly Guerrero said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Magaly Guerrero said...

"exuberant, quiet, sloppy, painstaking, organic, sensual, spiritual" that sounds like something I would enjoy a whole lot! Your description makes me want to run a see it right now. If only I din't have to move and do all this homework *sigh* But I'll sure keep in mind.

Um, my OCD acting up again. I had a typo, I saw it, and had to delete it.