THERE IS NO THERE, THERE.
-Gertrude Stein, Everybody’s Autobiography
By describing the failed attempt to locate her childhood home in Oakland California, Gertrude Stein asks us to reconsider the intangible visions we often hold onto with fervor.
The obliqueness of the grammar allows ‘THERE’, the vision, to be something real or imagined in the past, present or future – removing its temporal qualities or the specificity of her search and forcing a more universal and inclusive reading.
In four words – she illuminates the space, distance, between the perceived and the hoped for and forces the question, “if THERE does not exist in its envisioned form, does it substantially frame our experience of HERE, and when we go in search of the THERE, are we denying the possibilities of HERE?”
Words to knit by.
WE LOVE
TO HATE
THE CURSE
OF LOVE
-Graffiti Artist, East Village NYC