Mary Simpson
Boys or Women

David Petersen Gallery, Minneapolis
April 10 – May 30, 2015

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“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.
















Eye and Joint, 2015



Detail of collage inset