Annette Messager
Handbook of Everyday Magic during the Month of May 1973
Every morning of the month of May 1973, I write down my first name Annette in black ink and I quickly fold the paper in fours onto my name. I try to discover how my day will turn out through the stain that formed when I unfolded the sheet of paper.
Tuesday 1 May
Today there is something hanging over me - my name is illegible - like a large dark mass, a bird perhaps. I shouldn't board a plane, I shouldn't walk along pavements.
Wednesday 2 May
Today will be a happy uneventful day. I can feel confident, no enemies.
Thursday 3 May
Today something or someone new will enter my life. At the top in the centre, a bizarre form. It may be the telephone, it looks like it. News for me.
Friday 4 May
Today the thing at the top: the telephone. Bad news: dark perspectives.
Saturday 5 May
Today, the upside-down bird, the telephone, or the mailman. Good news? Not exactly. 4 horns at the top, 2 ears at the two ends: I don't really understand: beware of everything.
Sunday 6 May
Today I have to wash my hair. This figure with the dark black eyes and the very elaborate hair is me. I have to put on make-up and take good physical care of myself or else my brain, my head will burst. Bad and dark thoughts. Vacant and joyless gaze.
Monday 7 May
This stain represents my father's brown jacket, he is calling me. The 2 spots on each side tell me that nothing else but this matters today.
(Annette Messager, Handbook of Everyday Magic during the month of May 1973. Reprinted in The Everyday, 2008, Whitechapel Press.)
Bomb Interview with Messanger
Every morning of the month of May 1973, I write down my first name Annette in black ink and I quickly fold the paper in fours onto my name. I try to discover how my day will turn out through the stain that formed when I unfolded the sheet of paper.
Tuesday 1 May
Today there is something hanging over me - my name is illegible - like a large dark mass, a bird perhaps. I shouldn't board a plane, I shouldn't walk along pavements.
Wednesday 2 May
Today will be a happy uneventful day. I can feel confident, no enemies.
Thursday 3 May
Today something or someone new will enter my life. At the top in the centre, a bizarre form. It may be the telephone, it looks like it. News for me.
Friday 4 May
Today the thing at the top: the telephone. Bad news: dark perspectives.
Saturday 5 May
Today, the upside-down bird, the telephone, or the mailman. Good news? Not exactly. 4 horns at the top, 2 ears at the two ends: I don't really understand: beware of everything.
Sunday 6 May
Today I have to wash my hair. This figure with the dark black eyes and the very elaborate hair is me. I have to put on make-up and take good physical care of myself or else my brain, my head will burst. Bad and dark thoughts. Vacant and joyless gaze.
Monday 7 May
This stain represents my father's brown jacket, he is calling me. The 2 spots on each side tell me that nothing else but this matters today.
(Annette Messager, Handbook of Everyday Magic during the month of May 1973. Reprinted in The Everyday, 2008, Whitechapel Press.)
Bomb Interview with Messanger
everyday
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| Everyday, 2010, in progress. |
We took down the massive tornado of furniture, now it's a elephantine pile of material under a bright blue tarp outside of the Arts Exchange. I brought some of my favorite things home to rehab them and play with some arrangements.
Andrew Alexander writes on Threshold.
A great review by my favorite Atl. art/dance critic.
A great review by my favorite Atl. art/dance critic.
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| Photo credit: Bobbi Jo Brooks |
That's my monster furniture sculpture in the background.
Accumulative/Collaborative practices.
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| Timory Dodge, The days are here, the nights will soon follow, 2010 oil on canvas, 213x365 cm |
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