Surprise!

Griffin made a joke today about his lunch (a hamburger) being art and it immediately took me back nearly twenty years ago to a small gallery here in Boston and a multi-artist show that briefly ran there. David and I were at the opening reception, and as with most exhibits that showcase a group of different artists, the pool of talent in this bunch ran the gamut from very good to very bad. And with the exception of a friend whose work was in this show, I can remember only one other artist: Zesty Meyers. He had one piece in the exhibit and it consisted of a very large side of frozen beef hanging from a meat hook in the ceiling and dangling over a heated pan placed on the floor beneath it, causing the meat to slowly thaw, drip and stink. The smell in the gallery was off the charts with the body heat from all the guests speeding up the decay of that enormous slab of flesh. I thought that evening, as I do today, that that installation was by far the worst piece of art in the place. But obviously, it worked, didn't it? After all, all these years later I not only recall the details of that work, but the artist's name as well. And so Griffin and I talked about Zesty and his meat installation and then we moved on to other things and I really didn't give it much more thought. Then just now as I prepared to write about Zesty and his beef of so long ago, I thought "What the heck? Let's see if Zesty is still out there" and lo and behold, he is. After forming a groundbreaking installation and performance art group, he also co-founded the R 20th Century Gallery in New York City and is currently writing a publication on Brazilian mid-century masters. Who'd a thunk it? Certainly not me, but it sure has me thinking now.