I.

Alexander assumes a position resembling that of a rooster – he squats & then loops his arms – down – behind his knees & firmly holds his ears.  It’s the ears that make it extremely painful.

II.

I don’t know if this pose was Alexandrian, but from it I arrive back on message. That is, back to myself, realizing there would be nothing “Matthewian.”  Lacking all diminutives it can only be stretched thin “Great Matthew” or made low “Little Matty.”  The yew sound, the sound of a small & ill bred lamb, sealing a particular fate.  The hideousness of this phrase alone suggests that it’s best to step into the visual sphere.  Operating here, on the Z axis, you can have a signature that extends to three dimensions, through and beyond the fiber optics.  So I change my name from Matthew to “the brownness of bread.”

III.

Then I am, naturally, faced with the board meetings.

The conference room is oversaturated.  What was its décor?  Mostly an accumulation of signatures, some overwritten to the point of being inscrutable.

A feldspar laminate is installed over the wood laminate of the conference table.

I notice that I can’t quite rest my wrists at the edge like I used to, the lip is gone. Someone brings word of a hostile takeover.  Haribo has a new look, perfectly toasted, & it’s moving into the American market.  It seems that people have started to confuse me with the product a few weeks ago.

IV.

A name, like all things, should be an obstacle… something to stumble over.

V.

In such conditions the concern for geometry cannot be fully developed.  It is distracted by thick humidity, lack of central air, a too real reality indoors, &, outside, general poor weather.  Where the clarity of a plane is desired we find beads of sweat, & are revolted by its topography.  The name recoils & twists again into a stress position.

 

***

 

Matthew Whitley’s work has appeared or is scheduled to appear in various publications including The Brooklyn Rail, Translit, Vanitas,Gigantic Sequins, and The New Museum’s New City Reader. His writing has also appeared in the exhibition and conference context, including Vertical Reach: Political Violence & Militant Aesthetics organized under Yale’s “Utopia after Utopia” research initiative. He currently co-edits the radical artists’ imprint Cicada Press.