Friday, May 10: @ Whitney Archives

The one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about while listening to Tara Hart and Mitsuko Brooks was:  remembrance. Archives document and preserve and record and do a host of other things, yes yes. But I just imagined Mitsuko’s work with a living artist preserving existing materials and curating what they wanted to put together as their defining works, what they want to be remembered for, what they want to be remembered by. 

Even the materials that Tara and Mitsuko brought out were so fascinating to page through and to experience; a snapshot in time of the materials that existed decades ago of notable people and artists in the city.

It made me think about how I wanted to be remembered. What things of mine were going to be connected to me? What if I didn’t create anything? What if there’s nothing that I made or built  or created?

Would I still be remembered? Still could be remembered? Would I even want to be archived, documented, preserved? 

What does it mean? What does it matter? 

I had never heard of anybody they talked about before that session. Even now I forget their names. But I remember them now; I see their works, their names, their impact. People are spending their time and resources and efforts to curate a small portion of these artists’ works. 

Am I worth the same time and resources and effort?