Remarks on 100-Mile Suit in the Sweet Green Hangout and a toast Kelly Cobb and Aaron Igler at the ICA on March 25, 2007.
Here are my remarks:
In my salad days, I ate salads.
I am not going to explain this, I worked at a framer’s market at Prospect Park in Brooklyn and literally ate salads all of the time.
But what does the phrase “Salad Days” mean, I’ve never been completely sure: it’s a time when you are young and green, OK; but salad days are not only someone’s youthful hey-day, but also a time of passion. And in that, and this beautiful light here today, I’d also like to believe that all times of passion are our salad days.
One of the great and fatiguing failures of our time is a kind of an inevitable-feeling, daily, and routine failure of the imagination. Aaron’s Sweet Green Hangout and Kelly’s 100-mile suit embraces the imagination, which is why we are also here--to embrace and to toast Aaron and Kelly, and the dozens of people who worked on all of the parts of these two remarkable projects.
So--
To the builder of a sweet green shelter that shows us how to use our minds and our hearts in order to survive and to live more gracefully in the process.
To a really intrepid fabric artist, who, has gone headlong into 100 mile radius--and a 100 miles from there--and a 100 more from there--to find everything she could find--from everyone she could find--to bring together all of the pieces of this glorious 100-mile suit (and us) together.
To the ICA curatorial staff (Elyse, Jenelle, Naomi, Jill), who, brought all of the pieces together in hundreds of other ways, amidst the welter of the Locally Localized Gravity show.
To Aaron Igler and Kelly Cobb, friends and beautiful peers, who show us that DIY: do it yourself is in fact a group project, we raise our glasses, and wish you well. Aaron may you always dance in your 100-mile suit like there's nobody watching. And Kelly may you join him--and may we all join you both. To Aaron and Kelly--we salute you!
By TD
