Glen Hayward

About the work

A series of fortunate events. With the help of many I was able to take an installation of my work to New York in 2017. As a dutiful servant of the demands of cultural experience I journeyed to the institutions known to hold the valuable artefacts of our time. I came back with treasure on my telephone that also doubles as a visual recording device. Like Zizeks imbecile I accepted the language of our creative time but contrary and as a result of my excess…or was it lack, I also sort to take that swipe at the elephant.

DIA Walter De Maria Earth Room
Pine, paint.
For the avid collector the ceiling is one of the few spaces left to put art. Michelangelo knew this. Walter De Maria didn’t, he filled a loft space in New York with dirt. I went with a collector who had swapped some art with me so I could use his apartment in New York. On the way he discussed on the phone issues to do with hundreds of thousands of dollars, he is an investment bankery dude you see. I showed him… I made friends with all the ‘real’ people at the reopening of the earth room. The young woman at the door, the man serving the drinks and I joked with the attendant about making a run for it across the room. I also asked if college kids tried to plant marijuana seeds in the dirt, if they were Kiwi kids they would have tried this. All in all a victory for the little guy, that is the kind of legend I am. The excluded from this fantasy are the people above the ceiling, every woman’s ceiling is another woman’s floor you see.

Guggenheim, Title will come out of a Bowie song Golden Years. In it he croons, “Don’t let me hear you say life’s taking you nowhere…angel” Fabricated out of pine to be 48 mm thick and at an angle of 32 degrees. However as a floating object (let’s say signifier for fun) it can operate more truly as an object, use value being an annoyance awaiting removal. The gold colour will be gold leaf.  At the top of these stairs are some Brancusi sculptures, curiously I love to pair him with Duchamp, I think you can understand modernism much better if you read Brancusi through Duchamp and vise versa; of course in this binary Bourgeois is the synthesis. At least history will have you believe this. I can’t resist reading them all through lens as a system of assistance, to see a handrail in drag, like an arrow that represents sight. Pointing us towards a paired down order, that which will not erupt.

MOMA, Louise is no longer alive, but her portrait unfolds, we circle the fire ‘Oh beautiful soul Louise we shall name a cake in your honour.’ Of course I walked past the barriers and joined the circle of curators discussing one of her sculptures. I said to one of them “Gosh she’s good” from her reverie the woman looked at me and looked back at the stanchions and rope. “You can’t be here.”
I also sat on the stairs out of the way, behind some freestanding signage, the security guard said, ‘You can’t sit there.’

We hope someday she will return with the Tape measure as promised by the sign.
Paint on board 1081 x 610 mm portrait orientation, long and skinny like the telephone photo format, finger-painted to represent cheap inkjet printing.

Whitney stairwell
The Whitney fire system was installed in 1996 by a company owned by Arnold Meiser, his grandparents had survived the holocaust, emigrated to New York in 48. They used to own a haberdashery on 23rd eventually they retired after raising three boys one of whom, Arnolds father had children. Of the others; one died in Vietnam and the other one was institutionalised for a nervous breakdown following poor performance as a salesman for Xerox. Arnold’s father was a trademan too, after the economic conditions for small business had changed in America in the seventies.

Pollock paint pot, Guggenheim, downstairs
The trouble with being a genius is that you burn your lunch. I often worry about a great thought being missed whilst I was doing something like writing this down.

MOMA, if you look to the far distance on the right you see a man as audience participating in a Magritte, mise en scene. I have no idea what the people in front of the Pollock are doing.

New Museum, Bowery No more signs please this can’t be fleshed out any more than this. Look I will do something with this just not sure yet.

Photos courtesy of the artist

About the artist

A series of fortunate events. With the help of many I was able to take an installation of my work to New York in 2017. As a dutiful servant of the demands of cultural experience I journeyed to the institutions known to hold the valuable artefacts of our time. I came back with treasure on my telephone that also doubles as a visual recording device. Like Zizeks imbecile I accepted the language of our creative time but contrary and as a result of my excess…or was it lack, I also sort to take that swipe at the elephant.