30 cents can buy a cigarette in New York. it can buy a meal in Benin. You can tie it to the leg of a dove and fly it to the heavens, or you can choke a baby with it if you wedge it in their throat at just the right angle.

This does not make thirty cents murderous, heavenly, nourishing or a vice.

And then this, from John Baca: What pact do you seek with your viewer, where is this pact addressed in your work and why does this matter (what job does your pact have to do)?

I say give me your money and I will give you your money’s worth. Give me your attention and I will try to amuse you. Give me more and I will try to show you how to make your life less boring. Thats what I can offer of value.

So, what pact do I seek? I won’t drip my self-righteous spittle; I will make sure there are doors to my work, and that the doors lead somewhere. I won’t ask you to look at something that has no merit.

Where is the pact addressed in my work? I craft hooks/gimmicks/ punch lines as entry points, as guarantees that there is something there. I hope there’s something deeper, but at least I hope to give what I say I give. At the very least, it is what it is, nothing less. And maybe its even more.

Why does this matter? What job does this pact have to do? The pact keeps me honest. It reminds me that masturbation is unsettling for others to watch, unless they are really into you.

None of these really feel very insightful, and I guess I just don’t see viewers so invested in any one art piece that they deserve or want pacts. But I’ll keep looking. The whole event or occurance as sculpture thing didn’t use to make sense to me, and now I totally know what I mean when I say I want to create objectless art in which you get to make objects, or create a distinct event loop that functions as a sculpture, so clearly my ideas about art can change.