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Art that can be construed as supporting LGBTQ+ rights at museumpeace.com

Stephen Lauf shares from his experience of creating LGBTQ+ supporting art in Russia with a long a complicated personal history with the country.

Looking just north of east out the back door 2022.04.14 18:23
Looking just north of east out the back door 2022.04.14 18:23

2024.04.20
A Jupiter-Uranus Conjunction

2023.04.21
AK 11:23
Someone emailed me looking for you, lol. I hope all is well!
SL 11:32
Hi Andrew, things are going along but there’s always plenty of ughs. If you want you can give me Yura’s email and I can contact them if I want. Hope all is well with you too.

2023.04.22
Excerpt from an email received today:
“At the exhibition we would like to reproduce the image of the male figure with which you describe the mechanism of The Timepiece of Humanity and present an audio version of your text. This image together with the architecture of the exhibition will be able to better present the different projects of the artists and to unify them conceptually.”
YP

2023.04.23
Excerpt from an email sent today:
I still have to compose my ideas, which I hope to send to you within the coming week, but I can start with the following anecdote:
Although I had no name for it at the time, the theory of chronosomatics first occurred to me in 1981, when I was living and working in Washington DC for the summer. It was not till years later that I first read the phrase “a timepiece of humanity” within a translated excerpt from Velimir Khlebnikov’s The Tables of Destiny published in October 27. It immediately occurred to me that I too have been thinking about and formulating a “timepiece of humanity,” and that’s when I began to write my ideas down.

2023.04.24
SL 11:11 PM
Guess what…some of my very best work will be part of an exhibit this summer at the House of Culture, Moscow.
AK 11:16 PM
No way?!
From that email I got?
I hope you’re not a Russian spy but that’s epic.

SL 11:21 PM
Yes, yes, and not a spy. I can’t believe I’m not bursting at the seams…they’re featuring my theory of chronosomatics, The Timepiece of Humanity. Andrew, yes epic. I’m tearing up a little now. I almost called you today but it was too busy here with my brother.

2023.04.28
My head was in a fog all day; it wasn’t easy having to clean up after another’s vomit sickness in the middle of the night.
At least the “timepiece” cad data translated well in Russia.

2023.04.30
I spent the little bit of free time I had yesterday web (re)searching Leonid Mikhelson. Why? Because it would be great if he added Mary Boone’s 180 hours of community service to his art collection.
Over a year ago now, JP always said, “Stranger things have happened,” whenever I talked about my art project ideas that were going to provide the opportunity for me to make money selling my art and thus manifest a solution to and a relief from the ever exhausting task of caregiving for my brother.
Well, good strange things have been happening over the past eleven months, most of which stem from the discovery of Piranesi’s final project and all that that has brought to bear thus far.
Then, Saturday a week ago, while Russia’s military actions against Ukraine continued to intensify, a huge art explosive was dropped on me from the House of Culture, Moscow–they want to feature my theory of chronosomatics, specifically The Timepiece of Humanity within an exhibition there this summer.
Even though I rarely think or talk about it much anymore, the theory of chronosomatics is the one creation of mine that I value the most. The curatorial team at the House of Culture have incredible aim, yet I doubt they expected me to drop huge art explosives right back at them, several days of elating back and forth ‘blasts’ in fact.
In no way do I wish my “explosives” and “blasts” metaphors to come off as glib or completely insensitive or, worse, vile. The fact that my brother and I would never have even come into existence were it not for our parents having met in a Soviet labor concentration camp in southern Ukraine 1945-1949, actually gives me feelings of impunity, albeit with inevitable unease. Our parents were not Russians; they were ethnic Germans of eastern Europe who immediately became refugees at the end of World War II–the victorious Soviets collected all the new refugees between the ages of 18 and 45 and sent them to camps further eastwards via locomotive boxcars. Our father and mother were 21 and 20 years old respectively when they first arrived, and then soon became coal miners.
As always, when I think or write about this stuff, my emotions temporarily reach the point of overwhelming, so I’ll stop for now. And besides, it’s time to give my brother another drink. It’s just the two of us on Sundays.

The Timepiece of Humanity Gauge - Star Vengeance - GES-2 House of Culture Moscow - 19 October 2023 - 21 January 2024
The Timepiece of Humanity Gauge – Star Vengeance – GES-2 House of Culture Moscow – 19 October 2023 – 21 January 2024

2024.01.22
The Star Vengeance exhibition at GES-2 House of Culture, Moscow, ended 21 January 2024. As far as I’m concerned, the only real consequence of The Timepiece of Humanity having been part of the Star Vengeance exhibition is the Art that can be construed as supporting LGBTQ+ rights exhibition presently at museumpeace.com 19 October 2023 to 18 October 2024.

 

"What time is it?" - still from The Driver's Seat - 2004.10.18
“What time is it?” – still from The Driver’s Seat – 2004.10.18

 

Art that can be construed as supporting LGBTQ+ rights

rainbow stephen Lauf

 

@stephenlauf
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