Myles Starr at NO SPACE

Identity, description, & representation 

“Observing the girl, he saw in her a vindication of a piece of old wisdom. Nice eyes, hair, and skin produced a pretty woman, but a truly excellent nose created a beautiful woman.”

f​rom “M​artian​ T​ime -S​lip” ​b​y ​Philip K Dick

Under an image of “Kokedusky” in Andrew Birk’s early Facebook advertisement for this show, I wrote something that seems appropriate to quote exactly:

“A​esthetics isn’t an inquiry into art. Beauty is just a mask. aesthetics is an inquiry into Desire. can’t you see it bubble up here?”​

The first time I really spent time with Myles was at a loft in Bushwick, many years ago. he was drawing burka babes. I cut out a fisting diagram from his “art of love” book, or w​hatever it was, and taped it to the paper. we photocopied it and called it a “zine.”

It’s probably apt to mention now that Myles Starr is a pervert. we both are. Myles and I share the same IdeaA​and t​his exercise is the record of me trying to reach upward to get a touch.

There’s a lot work in this show. you might notice a prevalence of noses, fruit, and heads, plastic and concrete.

Each fits into a different class, and some of them don’t want to be where they ended up. comfort seems inherent in how the pieces relate to each other. a lapse of comfort produces desire. the extension the of desire creates conflict.

Conflict creates differentiation.

Differentiation creates identity.

Identity creates class.

Class creates society.

Society creates art.

Art creates reflection.

And that’s where we’re at right now—starring in a mirror.
But the thing about a mirror is that it’s never adequate to describe a thing through itself alone. To say “I am that I am”B​is just to quote the Bible. So, Myles broke the mirror and it’s refreshing to encounter fracture in a scene where artists say things just to rhyme.

Is anything I’ve written “​right/true/real?”
Mostly not, but the memoir that takes of the upper part of the page is. The difference between the World and what I have to say about it parallels the difference between the World and what I want from it. For the same reason that one of Myles’s pictures can fracture into a million of my half-thoughts, so can a self analysis reveal that maybe none of us are whole.

A. “the Root.” s​ee D’Angelo’s 2000 album, V​oodoo.​ B. s​ee E​xodus 3:14.

by J​oe Syverson