It is with general appreciation and veneration for John Kelsey that I would like to offer this PDF, The Kelsey Collection Artforum 2004-2012, as a present. Kelsey is not only an author, gallery director, and member of the art collectives Bernadette Corporation and Reena Spaulings, but above all a real mensch. It is my hope that in making this compilation, and sharing it with you, together we will broaden the limits of such a vast and impressive body of thought.
– M.R.
– M.R.
ADDENDUM
When backed into a corner, the personality will utilize various tactics in order to fortify the means by which its reputation circulates. Its defense mechanisms can solicit a gamut of resources in which it has influence. These areas can include, but are certainly not limited to, its legal institutional leverage or even the grassroots social milieus to which it extends the promise of either fame or infamy.
The former maneuvering has most recently emerged through the personality’s request for Artforum to defend the reputation of one of its contributors. Publisher Charles Guarino has taken time out of his undoubtedly busy schedule to mysteriously acquire the phone numbers and email addresses of both the alleged infringers and those suspected of having influence upon M. Roubignoles. Under the threat of invoking the mechanisms of state repression through the involvement of police and FBI on the laughable grounds of "child pornography," "cyber harassment," and "copyright infringement", Mr. Guarino — while amusingly requesting for his phone call not to be divulged — reiterated that Artforum routinely collaborates with the state both in and outside the United States, chasing down copyright infringers in China, for example, dragging them before Chinese authorities. Mr. Guarino comically warns that Artforum is willing to do the same in this case if their intellectual property, brand, copyright, private corporate goods, and reputation of their contributors are not resolutely defended. Revealingly, one can here witness the precious nature of the personality’s reputation with even the slightest desecration. Its nature is the nature of private wealth rendered seductively public. How could one not resist to simply reach out and nudge?
These recent developments stand as a most astounding recourse for the artist personality in particular, an individual which prides himself on the semblance of disregard to intellectual property, and yet, at the drop of a hat, pleads with an art publication to engage in censorship. Of course Artforum has their own pathological justifications for these troubling efforts. Again to paraphrase Mr. Guarino, there is, apparently, a “right” and a “wrong” type of institutional critique, the former championed for its implicit barrenness. What an error M. Roubignoles has made! Daring to investigate the extent to which defamation yields a wealth of opportunity!
WHO,
OR WHAT,
IS JOHN KELSEY? A POSTSCRIPT
12 June 2014, Mute Magazine
