Susan Inglett Gallery
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Home
  • Exhibitions
  • Artists
  • Viewing room
  • Focus
  • Publications
  • News
  • Contact
  • I.C. Editions
Menu
  • Current
  • Forthcoming
  • Past

GREG SMITH: ASTERISK

Past exhibition
21 March - 19 April 2008
  • Overview
  • Works
  • Installation Views
  • Press
Sculpture built out of detritus coming out of a chair on the ground
View works

A farmer wanted more milk from his dairy operation and employed a psychologist, an engineer, and a physicist to make suggestions. They thought for a while and then made their proposals:

 

The psychologist said, “I think you should make the cows feel happier and more relaxed in the barn by painting the stalls green and playing recordings of birdsongs. Then they’ll let go of their milk more easily.”

 

The engineer said, “If you make each stall in the barn a bit smaller, you can add a few more stalls and have more cows for milking.”

 

Then the physicist began, “Let’s start by assuming the cow is a sphere.....”

 

So it’s a physics joke and not everyone appreciates those. But the physicist has the last laugh, because by her logic pretty much anything can be approximated as a sphere, so she has a unified way to make sense of the world. It’s an absurd and insipid structure, but it is functional in its own way. It might be pretty popular with a few small adjustments, and then maybe even I’d go for it. For example, instead of depending on a sphere, perhaps the physicist could have used something a little richer.

 

The asterisk is often associated with the fine print, the qualification, or the caveat. It also provides us with a fresh start in that mythic American way, tucking away inconvenient truths while at the same time keeping them close at hand for (possible) later examination. The asterisk opens just enough space so that optimism might breathe, with caveats.

 

In this exhibition I would like to make a qualified proposal for the asterisk as basic atom or building block for everything worth thinking about. It can serve as the building block for any manner of objects, media, or world views, and perhaps one day as the basis for a burgeoning community. For more information please see www.asteriskspit.com.

Download Press Release

Related artist

  • A collaged fabric banner with yellow, blue, and pink overlapping shapes

    GREG SMITH

Share
  • Facebook
  • X
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Email
Back to Past exhibitions
Manage cookies
© 2020 SUSAN INGLETT GALLERY
Site by Artlogic

522 West 24th Street New York NY 10011 212 647 9111 info@inglettgallery.com

Instagram, opens in a new tab.
Facebook, opens in a new tab.
Twitter, opens in a new tab.
Join the mailing list
Send an email

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences
Close

Join our mailing list

Signup

* denotes required fields

Susan Inglett Gallery is committed to data security and to protecting your privacy. The gallery is in full compliance with requirements as stipulated by the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). Should you wish to change, update or delete any of your details, please contact us.