Thursday Edition: William Powhida
You by William Powhida
8"x10" ($20) | 11"x14" ($50) | 16"x20" ($200)
Special-edition Thursday greetings, collector friends! Today's edition is a For-Mature-Audiences-Only salvo from everyone's favorite art world provocateur, William Powhida. We here at 20x200 couldn't think of a better day than what we thought* was Tax Day Eve on which to release You.
William posted the original on his blog back on November 2nd—which happened to be another day that registers highly on the government vexation scale, Election Day. I posted it to my Tumblr immediately and with great glee—I was quite certain that an edition was a must. After all, I'd said months before that I looked forward to assisting William in ticking off the 20x200-related accomplishment from his list again soon.
The challenge of exactly how to release this edition has been such an engaging, amusing and interesting process that it's somewhat bittersweet to be moving on to the next phase of its existence. (Although, I'd hazard to guess that continued interesting-ness is practically guaranteed.) I showed the image to my boyfriend a few weeks ago, saying how excited I was that we'd gotten it definitively scheduled, and his response completely surprised me. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and said, "Well... I kind of don't like it." That he didn't like it was definitely something to talk about. But what was most striking was his level of discomfort: he couldn't possibly hang it in his house where his young son (who'd probably find it kind of hilarious) and his mom—who visits pretty frequently—(she'd be absolutely unamused, let me tell you) would see it. The whole parental disapproval thing simply hadn't occurred to me, blessed as I was with a mom who gave me license to curse at a scandalously young age. (Actual quote: "I'd much rather that you cursed someone out instead of throwing punches.")
Up until that very moment, I hadn't given an enormous amount of thought to how we'd present the print to you, dear collectors. I knew that it was going to require some special handling, but seeing Steve mildly scandalized made me think that perhaps I'd underestimated the potential impact of You. Earlier this week, I presented the conundrum to the team, and the process of figuring out a solution provoked myriad "I-can't-believe-this-is-my-job" episodes. We're a pretty liberal-minded crew around here, but it was important to us that our own sensibilities not alienate those among you who are well within your rights to be offended by a screen full of profanity. Conversely, we didn't want to compromise or disrespect the image or its creator in any way, shape or form. Then there was a whole other vector that we'd never had cause to consider up until today—namely, whether we'd be violating any internet obscenity laws with the edition's release.
And then there's the question of whether artwork like this threatens to dilute the word's potency. "That's the most important thing!," Steve told me, then added, "I really like saying it and don't want that to go away." That it won't is part of what's so fascinating about the word to begin with. It's pretty commonplace in many spheres. I could count at least three times Jon Stewart was censored during his recent Glenn Beck tour de force, for instance. As someone said to me at a cocktail party last night, it's among the most severe in the pantheon of four-letter words, and yet it's potency remains, by and large, unabated. I kind of don't understand why, and have thought quite a bit about why it's so scandalous to utter it. What I do know for sure is that it's a deeply satisfying word to say, the corporeal embodiment of blowing off steam. The "F" forces your upper teeth against your lower lip, the opportunity to extend the uhhhhhhhhhh in proportion to however regretful, frustrated or angry you may be, but always ending crisply with the decisive full stop of a "kuh." There, don't you feel better now?
* Turns out that Tax Day falls on Monday, April 18th this year! Who knew?
Next Email : Edition Announcement #385 - Michelle MuldrowPrevious Email : Edition Announcement #383 - Todd McLellan
Love it? Share it!
on Twitter...
on Facebook...Find art in your price range: $20, $50, $200, $500, $1000, $2000, $5000
These editions are almost sold out: Grab them while you can!
Or browse by your favorite color: Try our new color browser.
Jen Bekman Projects is hiring!....
Forward this email to a friend
Update my subscription preferences...
Unsubscribe me from this list.