David Hammons / David Hammons. Real Time

“David Hammons was not interested in having this catalogue produced. He gave some thought at first to producing blue eyeglasses and handing those out to visitors instead of this catalogue. When he finally agreed that there should be a catalogue, he did not want it to include his resume. Catalogues and resumes are the stuff that interests galleries, not artists. They are tools of the manipulative process by which art is turned into a commodity, a collection of commercial items set out for sale. Given that it is a book, a catalogue is an exponent of written culture, a culture that is foreign to the tradition within which Hammons works. It is an exponent of the culture of whites. Black tradition speaks through oral culture.” from the text by Milada Ślizińska