WELCOME TO THE djproject GROUP

Western Horizontal, Western Vertical

Exhibit [zero]

Welcome to today’s focus group.
Have a seat and the coffee and donuts are resting on a table over there.
Do not mind the beeping, the footsteps, the talking or the occasional mental screams.

We mean you no harm.  We are simply interested in information.

Exhibit I

The typographists see something spectacular
When forced to look deep into the script and letter.
There is assertion and aggressiveness… the new advertising.
But are they begging me to try out a product outside the station?
Or is the train taking me through a surreal tunnel?

Exhibit II

Oh yes we travel.
Into a dysfunctional suburbia
And a broken centropolis.
Close your eyes kids.
I’ll tell you when the scary part is over.

Exhibit III, Part I

Does the item you are about to buy
Give you security?
Does the colour transfix your eye
And carry you into serenity?
Is the poison killing you yet?

Exhibit III, Part II

Oh yes.  Morning coffee is brewing.
The laughter of four colours combines into many.
Oh yes.  The flowery musical prances the stage.
Emotions are caught in a love affair with the players.

Exhibit III, Part III

Is this what the record executives have been spoon-feeding us with?
Twelve by twelve inches of hogwash wrapped in betrayal.
But still, you can’t help but notice that he power chord
Pulls you in.

Exhibit III, Part IV

The utensils we use create our realities
If we command them to do so.
But sooner or later, we let it be done by other people
And we do the following: bitch, moan, whine, accept, contemplate.

Exhibit III, Part V, Transition

They bake in the sun like their predecessors.
They breathe with life as occupants and visitors come and go.
Forcefully, the industrial constructs have become symbiotic with a 
Barren landscape of sun, sky, fauna and earth.

Exhibit IV

Energy transforms into momentum.
Solidification becomes liquidification
The dark structure is instantly illuminated by
5,000 kilowatts of stardust and divine awe.

But still, we’re bored.  We are not amused.  We are most certainly not enlightened.

We are just simply ordinary.

Exhibit V, Part I

So this is the new form of propaganda
Sure it grabs attention to the eyes and mind
But does it make a point?
Does it motivate and inspire change?
Does it cause revolution?
Or does it simply waste my time?

Exhibit V, Part II

The punk kid laughs.
The bleeding hearts and the artists
Weep and dry their tears on a black veil.
Oh Prometheus, why destroy the creative expressions of man?
And oh Salon, why didn’t you invite me in?

Exhibit V, Part III

We choose to see the landscapes, clouds
And ideas we want to see.
We can daydream and yet still be human.

Exhibit V, Part IV

And the human race makes the story go on
And on and on and on and on and on…

Exhibit VI

Is it possible to see God’s wonder in the midst of flashing lights and eager paparazzi?
Is it possible to enjoy a long Italian libretto in the modern world of attention spans struggling to breathe?
Is it possible to see into the future and have it not quite meet your paranoiac expectations?
Is it possible to find love while walking on a Mobius strip?
Is it possible to study not the mechanics of sight, illusion and trickery?
Is it possible to rise above ourselves and return to Eden?

Exhibit VII

And the meaning of life goes on unexplained
But for some strange reason, we move on like it wasn’t.
God entertains us with his scrawl and dirty vernacular
And then black strips it when it makes the feature film.
We chart the astronomical anomalies long before the supernova happens.
And we live like we are above the city lights…

And yet we are still grounded.

Exhibit VIII

Now the journey takes an interesting turn into dark comedy
For security resides into the shadow and chlorophyll creatures blend into obscurity.
We no longer see with eyes of Kodachrome for we just changed our lab technique and
Process our film of memories differently.

Now, we can go to sleep to the simple pulse of a timekeeper.

Exhibit IX

Ladies and gentlemen!  Welcome to tonight’s theatrical preview.
We promise you in a few months a film about war, devastation, plague, melancholia and uncertainty
Filled with authentic native scenery, animals of wild listening to Allen Ginsberg’s poetry,
A twisted ending and experiences that bend and twist and distort reality.

And yes, David Fincher will direct it,
David Carson will be director of photography,
Trent Reznor will do the deafening music and background noize
Delivered through a sound system designed by James Guthrie

Ladies and gentlemen.  Gobble down subliminal popcorn, be considerate of others and enjoy the show.

Exhibit X, Part I

I can find lots of ways to use a street map.
I can show people my feeling, my insights and my way.
It may lead to confusion.
It may lead to destruction.
But hopefully it will lead to salvation and enlightenment.

Exhibit X, Part II

The motherfucker is blowing Cuban smoke in my face!
Nobody does that to me!
I don’t care if the man throws the book at me,
I won’t stand for it.  Stupid little punk.

Take care of him boys.

Exhibit XI

And so my friend.  Did the brochure kept its promise
And provided you with a walk through the inner human eye?
Did you experience serenity and peace?
Were the people nice and friendly and helpful?
How were the landscapes, the items of interest and addition, the colours of pleasure and pain?

Was it everything you have hope for?  Did it meet and/or exceed your expectations?

Tell us the truth.  After all, we are simply interested in information.
We are artists.  And we are utterly fascinated by the way the medium generates reflection.

Well…

I can see you are tired.  It’s over.  Go home.

But one last thing before you leave:
	May the roads you travel on take you home safely
	And may the same roads take you back here, so we can meet again.

Information:
Written on 27 July 2000, originally at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden exhibit of Edward Ruscha (b. 1937) paintings, this poem was written in the same style and technique as the mammoth poem, The East Side of the Mind. The “exhibits” correlate with the separate rooms within the showcase. When “exhibits” are divided into “parts,” that refers to the walls that the paintings of inspiration occupy. Asteriks separate the painting titles and they may appear in error.

Exhibit [zero]: basic introduction but written at the last room

Exhibit I: Boss * Ace * Actual Size (written in “Exhibit II”)

Exhibit II: Sixteen Books, Offset Printed (a collection of different books and pictures that Ruscha did)

Exhibit III, Part I: Automatic * Jelly * Chemical

Exhibit III, Part II: Flash, L.A. Times * Annie

Exhibit III, Part III: Electric * Falling But Frozen * Smash

Exhibit III, Part IV: Talk About Space * Noise, Pencil, Broken Pencil, Cheap Western

Exhibit III, Part V, Transition: Thayer Avenue * Doheny Drive * Wilshire Blvd. * Beverly Glen (the “transition” refers to the location of the paintings between “Exhibit III” and “Exhibit IV”)

Exhibit IV: Standard Station, Amarillo, Texas * Adios * City * Rancho * Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights

Exhibit V, Part I: Various Cruelties * Very Angry People * Sand in the Vaseline * Vanishing Cream

Exhibit V, Part II: The Los Angeles County Museum on Fire

Exhibit V, Part III: Not a Bad of World, Is It? * A Certain Form of Hell * Sea of Desire

Exhibit V, Part IV: No End to the Things Made Out of Human Talk

Exhibit VI: The Back of Hollywood * Opera! * 1984 * L’amour * Optics * Sin

Exhibit VII: Eternal Amnesia * Where Are You Going Man? (For Sam Doyle) * Boy Meets Girl * Ice * Industrial Village and Its Hill * The Uncertain Trail * Brother, Sister * Uphill Driver

Exhibit VIII: Vegetation Made Public * Caribe * Strong, Healthy * Five Past Eleven

Exhibit IX: 17th Century * 9,8,7,6 * Western * Triumph * Industrial Strength Sleep * Untitled * Howl

Exhibit X, Part I: Two Sheets Stained with Blood * Suspended Sheet Stained with Ivy * Two Sheets with Grass Stains

Exhibit X, Part II: I’ll Be Getting Out Soon and I Haven’t Forgotten Your Testimony Put Me in Here * You Don’t Know WHEN You Don’t Know WHERE You Don’t Know Who and You Don’t Know WHY * Little Snitches Like You End Up in Dumpsters All Across Town * When I’m Released I’m Smoking a Straight Line to You. Got Me? (Note: When reading the poem, do it in a gangster (not gangsta) accent, which means either Chicago or New York/Brooklyn.)
Exhibit XI: The Mountain * La Brea, Sunset, Orange, De Longpre * Blast Curtain * Sin-Without * Hollywood, Sunset, Santa Monica, Vine * Gower, Beachwood, Franklin

Information, continued: The above title was based on a painting title of a painting by Edward Ruscha. The original title was “The Poet Paints Words onto a Paper Canvas” but that would be used for the title of the small collection of poems relating to art.
Other Proposed Titles: Words Without Thoughts Never to Heaven Go; I Forgot to Remember to Forget; Not Then, As I Was About to Say; Bi-Level Transport, Fiber-Optic Suburbs; Ionic; People Getting Ready to Do Things; The Endless Circle of White*; The Focus Group Session*
(All titles except in * are titles of artwork by Edward Ruscha.)

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