Month: October 2012

ThingsThings

St. Sebastian, 1994 by Tetman Callis (about 2 ft. x 2 ft.; mixed media–doll, nails, screw, photographs, paper, blood, and saliva, on pine plywood)

Toiling upToiling up

“No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty—none less inclined to take, or touch, aught which they have not honestly earned.  Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost.” – Abraham Lincoln, “Annual Message to Congress,” December 3, 1861

ThingsThings

Santa Teresa, 1994 by Tetman Callis (2 ft. x 2 ft.; mixed media–doll, nails, screw, paper, blood, semen, photographs, on pine plywood)

Straightening the relationsStraightening the relations

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital.  Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed.  Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.  Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights.  Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits.  The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.” – Abraham Lincoln, “Annual Message to Congress,” December 3, 1861

ThingsThings

Plate, 1992 by Tetman Callis (about 8 in. x 2 ft.; mixed media–ceramic, glue, hair, lithium batteries, paper, berries, cloth, chewing gum, sewing needles)

Yeah, so calm down, all you virtuous vigilant folkYeah, so calm down, all you virtuous vigilant folk

“While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the government in the short space of four years.” – Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address”

ThingsThings

Necklace #3, 1995 by Tetman Callis (components purchased from Stone Mountain Bead Gallery)

Litmus testingLitmus testing

“The candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government upon vital questions, affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties, in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.  Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court or the judges.  It is a duty from which they may not shrink, to decide the cases properly brought before them; and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn their decisions to political purposes.” – Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address”

ThingsThings

Necklace #1, 1995 by Tetman Callis (components purchased from Stone Mountain Bead Gallery)

Now, for something (almost) completely differentNow, for something (almost) completely different

from long ago and far away

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spjcPS4ekOA

Long live the kingLong live the king

“A majority, held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.  Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism.  Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissable; so that rejecting the majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left.” – Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address”

ThingsThings

Marilyn on a Stick, 1991 by Tetman Callis (about 2 ft. tall by about 8 in. round; mixed media–gift bag, painted metal decoration, toothpicks, little plastic babies, dried cholla stem, plaster of Paris, KFC bucket, gift wrap)

Grand teleologyGrand teleology

“To correct the evils, great and small, which spring from want of sympathy and from positive enmity, among strangers, as nations, or as individuals, is one of the highest functions of civilization.” — Abraham Lincoln, “Address to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society”

ThingsThings

Manhattan 1993, 1993 by Tetman Callis (about 3 foot square with its transparent overlay; mixed media–photographs, rag board, metal, plastic, electrical tape)

It’s hardIt’s hard

“Learning to write is a mother-fucker.  But what great feelings of joy and power and something more atomized than clarity when you get it right.” – Eileen Myles (from Amy King interview in Denver Quarterly)

ThingsThings

Laughing (Please Touch), 1989 by Tetman Callis (about 3 ft. by about 5 ft. by about 2 ft.; mixed media–scrap metal, yarn, elastic, reflector, paper clips, little plastic dolls, hanging wire, barbed wire, rubber band)

Mightier than the sword, able to leap long centuries in a single boundMightier than the sword, able to leap long centuries in a single bound

“Writing—the art of communicating thoughts to the mind, through the eye—is the great invention of the world.  Great in the astonishing range of analysis and combination which necessarily underlies the most crude and general conception of it—great, very great in enabling us to converse with the dead, the absent, and the unborn, at all distances of time and space.” – Abraham Lincoln, “Lecture on Discoveries and Inventions” (emphasis in original)

ThingsThings

Kiln Dried, 1992 by Tetman Callis (about 2 ft. x about 6 in. x about 4 in.; mixed media–nails, razor blade, paper, blood, butter, and semen on rag board on pine)

Gone with the windGone with the wind

“When we review the past, it would seem that Christianity was but a name—that the Atonement had failed, and Christ had lived and died in vain.” – Phoebe Pember, A Southern Woman’s Story: Life in Confederate Richmond

ThingsThings

Intranslation, 1994 by Tetman Callis (about 2 ft. x about 4 in.; mixed media–pamphlets, tacks, nails, and screws on fiberboard)

A nation of hothouse flowersA nation of hothouse flowers

“As if it weren’t ludicrous enough for every child to be ‘gifted’, now they have to be ill as well: a touch of Asperger’s, a little autism; dyslexia stalks the playground; the poor little gifted things have been ‘bullied’ at school; if they can’t confess to being abused, they must confess to being abusive.” — Edward St. Aubyn, At Last

ThingsThings

Franklins 95, 1995 by Tetman Callis (about 5 ft. by about 4 in.; mixed media–photographs, cotton cloth, and plaster of Paris on pine)

There is seethingThere is seething

“Behaviours could be changed, attitudes modified, mentalities transformed, but it was hard to have a dialogue with the somatic habits of infancy.  How could an infant express himself before he had a self to express, or the words to express what he didn’t yet have?  Only the dumb language of injury and illness was abundantly available.  There was screaming of course, if it was allowed.” – Edward St. Aubyn, At Last

ThingsThings

Excoriate (main component), 1992 by Tetman Callis (about 2 in. by about 4 in. by about 2 in.; mixed media–French tchotchke, hanging wire, dye transfer dye, acrylic)

The reptilian brain awaitsThe reptilian brain awaits

“Neither a soul nor a personal identity was needed to precipitate a human life, just a cluster of habits clinging to the hollow concept of independent existence, like a crowd of grasping passengers sinking the lifeboat they imagined would save them.  In the background was the ever-present opportunity to slip away into the glittering ocean of a true nature that was not personal either.” – Edward St. Aubyn, At Last

ThingsThings

Crayons #30, 1996 by Tetman Callis, from The King of Crayons (about 4 in. by about 10 in.; crayon on cedar)

Getting pretty crowded down thereGetting pretty crowded down there

“Before they became masters of the universe, usurers were consigned to the seventh circle of Hell.  Under a rain of fire, their perpetually restless hands were a punishment for hands that had made nothing useful or good in their lifetime, just exploited the labor of others.” – Edward St. Aubyn, At Last

ThingsThings

Crayons #29, 1996 by Tetman Callis, from The King of Crayons (about 4 in. by about 10 in.; crayon on cedar)

Nothing meaning nothingNothing meaning nothing

“Forget heroin.  Just try giving up irony, that deep down need to mean two things at once, to be in two places at once, not to be there for the catastrophe of a fixed meaning.” – Edward St. Aubyn, At Last

ThingsThings

Billy Bob Sweet Thang, 1996 by Tetman Callis (about 18 in. x about 15 in.; mixed media–photograph, stickers, bullets, macaroni, plywood)