HOW TO: Oh, look at me, 2021

Materials:
Powder coated steel and expanded metal

Dimension:
120 x 228 x 216 inches

Fabrication:
Pulp Arts 
GeoVanna Gonzalez

Shows: 
Solo Exhibtion, Locust Projects, Miami Florida, 2021

Credits:
HOW TO: Oh, look at me is made possible, in part, with support from Locust Projects, Oolite Arts, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, and Pulp Arts.

Photography by: 
Zachary Balber
Juan Luis Matos 

HOW TO: Oh, look at me is part of an ongoing series in which GeoVanna Gonzalez visualizes poetry from tutorials (www.tutorials.fyi), an online open-source collection by Martin Jackson. This particular work is inspired by Jackson’s poem No Rothko, exploring how our identities are continually shaped, reshaped, and negotiated—a reflection both of the artwork and the project that inspired it.

The sculptural installation is designed to evoke the technological grid systems that structure our contemporary personal relationships and social exchanges. In HOW TO: Oh, look at me, GeoVanna turns her focus to Jackson’s commentary on art in the public domain, drawing parallels between these digital marks and the ways we leave traces of ourselves online.

Accompanying the installation is a film featuring two dancers whose movements respond to the sculpture, mirroring the fluidity of our online interactions. Their choreography alludes to the transitions we navigate as we present and modify our public and private selves—what we choose to share, obscure, or surrender.

No Rothko
after William Bronk

Somebody said to me, during the intermission,
that I remind her of a Rothko painting,
which surprised me. Surprised me that,
appealing as he is – us being there,
in that paint of his,
by not being there – that no,
I don’t have any poems
about any Rothkos.

Some of us paint to grope in the dark,
I tell her. Not one of us sees anything.
Listen: not one thing is there.
We are, all of us, edgeless,
and senseless. Look at me.
Oh, look at me.
We have to start now.

By Martin Jackson