I went to see “H {N)Y P N(Y} OSIS”, (http://www.armoryonpark.org/programs_events/detail/philippe_parreno) Phlippe Parreno’s show at the Park Avenue Armory (an enormous venue) which my brother Asad Raza produced. It made me think, think, think. It plucked at many of the chords and strings in my heart. There were lights, as in marquee lights, there was piano music. There were films projected onto giant screens. One of them was of a train going through a green landscape, with people standing by and watching it go. They had 1950’s clothes on, there were 1950’s cars standing around. People were grouped into young and old, african americans, asians, mixed groups. Was it showing us that we missed the train on race relations, the environment? It had a post apocalyptic feel to me. Another film was the inside of an apartment, again with a 1950’s look, with a narrator (a sweet female voice) telling us about the apartment and its furnishings, etc. Also, in this film, a real ink fountain pen was writing things in a notebook, and then scribbling them out and then writing everything twice so it looked like the writing was three dimensional. The person attached to the hand that was doing the writing, was he descending into madness? Something strange was going on. Finally the camera pulled back, farther and farther to show that the apartment was a set, surrounded by a film crew and all the technology and equipment needed to make a film. Also a child came out and started talking. I happened to catch her speaking about Heidegger, “Thus we ask now: even if the old rootedness is being lost in this age, may not a new ground and foundation be granted again to man, a foundation and ground out of which man’s nature and all his works can flourish in a new way even in the atomic age?” (the same quote I heard in the Tate Modern show a few years ago. This made me think of continuity, how things assimilate and relate in our lives!) It also made me think about what is art? How big does something have to be in order to matter? Should I be doing something big with my life? Big as in a show in a giant hall of an armory! Am I capable of doing something that big? Obviously, you don’t start that big, you work up to it. Am I able to put aside my fear and create something, say something meaningful? Am I able to put aside my “laziness” to do something on a grand scale? Am I able to commit to something and then see it through? Do I need to do something? Am I not enough just as I am? Do I need to use my voice and speak out for something, against something? I have a brain, that despite bipolar disorder, works pretty well (lol), is it incumbent on me to use it for the greater good? Isn’t it enough just to be a pretty face, hahaha.
My brother, Asad, (https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=asad%20raza%20art) has done all these things. He has steadily been making a name for himself. He started with Tino Sehgal​ a few years ago, producing his shows, at the Guggenheim (the whole gallery was theirs for weeks!) at the Tate Modern in London, in Rio, in Athens, in Paris, and many other places. He wrote a book with Hans Ulrich Obrist called “Ways of Curating.”
He has steadily, and without much fanfare, been working his butt off, and creating a name for himself in the art world, not to mention a stellar and extensive resume. I am so proud of him, his hard work and dedication, and vision. He is my baby brother and I couldn’t be more proud of him and his accomplishments or love him more! Now to learn from all that he’s done and do something myself. Believe in myself and commit to something bigger than myself and then like Nike, Just Do It! Hmmmm, lets see what life has in store for me, or maybe what I have in store for life.