Mary Simpson
Boys or Women
David Petersen Gallery, Minneapolis
April 10 – May 30, 2015
︎ text
︎ pdf
︎ press
“You laugh when boys or women tell their dreams.”
--Cleopatra to Dolabella,
“Antony and Cleopatra,” Act V, Scene II, William Shakespeare
In a suburb outside of Cologne
Mary and Gerhard are sitting in Gerhard’s studio drinking espresso. They are arguing.
G: There is impulse and there is control of impulse.
M: But how can you calculate an image in proportions like milk to coffee?
G: It is a danger to let heroic feelings into an image. You have to discipline the image.
M: Those absurd feelings. It’s not so analytical. Even whales mate belly to belly.
G: Whales and humans.
M: Any chimp can fling paint. What if control is just the cycle of doing something over and again? You reach for the image and it is there for you.
G: This is why I envy women, the indulgence in a madness every 28 days! It is wonderful, the organization of it.
Brueghel Red, 2015
Louder Now, 2015
Less Than One, 2015
Cleopatra, 2015
Tiger and Goat, 2015
Eye and Joint, 2015
Detail of collage inset
