A poem response to an (unpaid) poster campaign inviting artists to contribute work in support of Liste Showtime.

Later purchased by Frac Lorraine as an unlimited edition.


­PIN UP HANG UP (2020)

I imagine a woman*,
commissioned to produce a commodity,
an image to be reproduced indefinitely,
for sale
ad nauseam, ad absurdum,
a sale from which she is not to benefit directly,
but indirectly (maybe),
a sale which might expose her, and lead to a significant depletion of self-esteem.

She feels a very real sort of moral indebtedness—
fearing that she might not be
a valuable investment in herself—
but only outside herself, in representation.

Her hang up:
Show us how art should change the world.
And authenticate your expertise on the issue by representing
an image of your own idiosyncratic suffering.

Listen, if you buy what nobody asked me to make,
let me tell you what you invest in:

- A re-invest-igation into the case of the death of the author and his missing corpse,
which is purportedly a feminist pin up.
- My rent for the month of January 2021, in case none of my grant applications work out.
- Time to strengthen myself so as to find a more internal locus of control.

The quest for truth leads me to a barren plane,
a depleted sheet of paper,
a short list of the remains of the day.

The idea of barenness is archetypal:
Infertility, a source of great sorrow for every woman.

How about:
The strategic representation
of barrenness to resist exploitation?

I can’t imagine the end of commerce,
there’s not enough space on the page.

This page is worthless.
Give me another.
A bit of water.
Shelter.
Food, sleep, safety, love, recognition.

I do this because
I would not be doing anything else.

Grant art the basics.
Another page.
Shelter.
Another kind of page give me shelter.

Art is older than commerce.*
How competent do you think the woman is?

Wilke, reiterated, could be:
Who does she represent and why?
What do you want her to represent and why?

The artist, if she is worthy,
should agree to indebt herself.
If both the personal and the political are capital,
it seems obvious what to write about.

This has already been discussed
—ad nauseam—
and signifies an error in logical argumentation:
Stating a falsehood over and over again,
expecting it to produce truth.
A self-sustaining fallacy.

If you buy what nobody asked me to make,
I am telling you what you invest in:

yet another thing you did not know
you needed or wanted:

A very good sense of humour.


*commerce
[ kom-ers ]
noun

1. an interchange of goods or commodities, trade, business.
2. social relations, especially the exchange of views, attitudes, etc.
3. sexual intercourse.
4. intellectual or spiritual interchange; communion­


Read a comment on "Pin Up Hang Up (2020) by Katia D. Poro here.