Neglect

As a co-worker of mine says, "I work in an art museum, I don't have time to look at art." How true. How true. I've been very negligent to my life-partner, Joseph Kosuth's Five Words in Orange Neon, but I'm turning over a new leaf, starting now. That isn't to say I've been completely absent. As I rush through the galleries, on some errand that doesn't involve mid-60s conceptual art, I find myself basking in the warm glow of orange neon, and pausing--if only for a moment--to reflect on our relationship.

Ours is a complicated partnership, involving both scorn and mutual admiration. While I'm often wracked with guilt for not visiting him nearly enough, my lover isn't without culpability for our strained relationship. His lofty position on the wall of the stairs on the fourth floor of the Contemporary galleries gives him a haughty and supercilious air, keeping anyone who wants to get closer just out of reach. Still, on this Valentine's Day Eve, I stop to remember and wistfully reflect on those heady days way back in September of 2010 when we first met and exchanged nuptials. It was a simpler time, a happier time, and I will never forget it.