Museum of Worlds

4/3/2022 Ekphrastic at the Johnson Museum of Art

Because I took the photo and adjusted color — light — pop — does this make it my art?

Masks behind glass

Museum of Worlds: Ekphrastic at the Johnson Museum of Art
Con/Jur/d, 4/3/2022

They said of him
he sacrificed relationships
for his art

accusatory * denouncing * difficult

‘They’ being 
a glyph we understand
to mean

jealous * admiring * judgmental

Whole worlds built
from a few words irregular
like these 

oblique * obfuscating * unreasonable

I wish I
could show you how
I saw them

complete * complex * deliberate

windows I had never
ever looked through before
instantly familiar

preordained * perfect * planetary

filled with histories and logic 
and associations and feelings
supplanting this one

sadness * sorrow * ecstasies

with our imperfect future
the chaos of inhabiting someone 
else's museum

drop * release * renew

I never used to see
too indulgent and drunk
on words

part * parcel * process

to embrace
this too is part of me
a gallery of worlds

liminal * lost * found

I almost left after the first room — overwhelmed with its perfection

Do not adjust your vision

POWERING EXCHANGE: TEACHING OBJECTS IN TRANSFORMATION

I’m glad I stayed — simply astonished

TAKING SHAPE: ABSTRACTION FROM THE ARAB WORLD, 1950S–1980S

Struck dumb in the very best way

World hopping

Back to you. Much Love,

Con/Jur/d