Object Lessons
Advertising always seemed like a saturated, enriched context to me. It felt like a place to put both wishes and ambivalence. When finding my way through, the messages there told me stories about what life was in ways that were explicit and also hidden. Much of my work has been in reply and in addition.
Prince carves a line from the imagination of what being an adult will be like to its limit, the memory of the missing thing. As youths we imagine what lies ahead in a way that is deeply imaginary but in the end it reflects the way we will also make sense of life as adults. Even as children we often sense the mismatch between what we are told and shown life is and our inner experience. The conflict is part of a re-cognition of desire (the memory of the missing thing.) As we mature and begin to read one another and present ourselves as objects, the performative elements along with imaginary heirarchies of value complicate our ability to differentiate between what is real and what isn’t.
We grown increasingly self deceptive, imagining others take us for who we imagine ourselves to be (and also being painfully aware that we are not that thing). Papered over is the capability that comes with exorcising the signified within the story of ourselves. Prince makes these concerns explicit, demonstrating preferences for pretends, the effects of Desire. By tossing the defense against fundamental anxiety away, phantoms become figments. She tunes towards buoyancy and recasts lack as path for its unavoid/ability to create value.
