THE STAGI NG AREA

PETER LI NDE BUSK

Hol s t ebro Kuns t mus eum
THE STAGI NG AREA
PETER LI NDE BUSK
hlstb_plb_forsats.indd 1 12-12-2012 03:32:06
TOMORROW AI N T PROMI SED TO NO ONE
Mit frste mde med Peter Linde Busks vrker foregik i et lillebitte galleri i London
frst i 2011. Busk havde dkket vggene med sine malerier og tryk. Der var ogs
en rkke keramiske vrker, stret som klynger af hvidt lys gennem rummet. Jeg ved
ikke, hvad jeg havde forventet sikkert en udstilling af malerier men ikke denne
komplicerede koreogra. Vrkerne, og de gurer der optrdte i dem, rbte ad hinanden,
skndtes, kmpede om opmrksomhed. Der var imidlertid t, der fremstod strkest i
hele dette slagsml. I maleriet Neurotic Imposters, 2010 [g. 44], sivede tre mnd, som
spgelser, fra det, jeg forstr som Busks karakteristiske skumring; en urolig, regnfuld
grund af samme farve som tyndt mudder. I en anden kunstners hnder kunne gurerne
sagtens vre forblevet begravet i skidtet. Men Busk havde forvandlet dem til hieroglyffer
og overkradset deres konturer med gult kridt. Med deres vilde blikke, foroverbjede
kroppe og gale hoveder var der ingen tvivl om, at de var neurotiske, men deres bedrageri
var svrere at denere: mske forsgte de at overbevise os om, at de var konger. Til sidst
besluttede jeg, at de fremstod som forrykte fupmagere; kaotiske krfter som skabte uro
mellem alle andre elementer i udstillingen med deres vrede blikke, som det var umuligt
at undslippe.
Kort tid efter jeg havde set udstillingen, begyndte jeg at besge Busks atelier i Berlin.
Det var, lige som galleriet, et forholdsvis lille sted, tt pakket med halvfrdige lrreder,
arkivskuffer fyldt med arbejder p papir og den samme slags keramikting. Nsten alle
malerierne indeholdt mrkelige, forskruede mennesker. Lige som hans bedragere stirrede
de ud i forskellige grader af frdiggrelse og ophidselse, og de syntes alle sammen at
stille forskellige krav til Busk: nogle skulle omarbejdes, andre mtte han helt opgive,
TRE KONGER
ANTHONY BYRT
Sandheden er en hund, der skal i hundehuset;
den bliver pisket ud af stuen, mens Lady kan
st og stinke ved pejsen.
Narren, Kong Lear.
Hvis du gr ls p Kongen, m du hellere ramme plet.
Omar Little, The Wire.
1
61
Tomorrow ai nt promi s e d to no one, 2011
Fi g. 30
I ve got no expectati ons to pas s through here agai n, 2011
Fi g. 31
og endnu andre havde han bare at holde sig helvedes langt fra, s skre var de. Samlet
dannede de en slags arena i rollen som bde publikum og medvirkende for at understtte
Busks hovedrolle: kunstneren der arrangerer handlingen fra midt i rummet. Sknt der er
en masse krlighed og humor i det, er der ogs en del grusomhed. Det er for eksempel
sjldent at se Busks aktrer sammen i en gruppe han holder dem som regel adskilt
fra hinanden.
2
De er ofte deforme: naturens fejltagelser med vinger der stikker ud af
ryggen, nb der vokser ud af deres ansigter, kluntede luffer i stedet for fdder. Mange
er krblinge med manglende eller skve lemmer. Busk har ogs for vane at stte dem
solidt fast p sine ertydige overader, som om der foregr en stadig kamp mellem hans
behov for at holde dem i skak og deres eget vanvittige nske om at slippe vk.
Mens jeg iagttog Busk i hans atelier, fandt jeg ud af, at han er en rastls altmuligmand.
Netop som jeg fornemmede, at han var ved at n et gennembrud med en serie malerier,
opdagede jeg ved mit nste besg, at de var blevet stuvet af vejen og erstattet af collager
eller enorme trsnit. Trods disse skift er han dog altid, og ubnhrligt, maler. Med
dette mener jeg, at alt, hvad han laver, er drevet af malerens opfattelse af verden: en
forstelse af forholdet mellem materialitet og billede, og en teatralsk evne til at integrere
fysikalitet, sex, mytologi og historie i t enkelt illusorisk rum, hinsides tid. F kunstnere
er i stand til at opn noget sdant p s rafneret vis. Men endnu frre kan hndtere
dt, der er Busks vsentligste kendetegn: hans ganske srlige form for kaotisk, moralsk
forlsning.
I VE GOT NO EXPECTATI ONS TO PAS S THROUGH HERE AGAI N
Hen imod slutningen af mit ophold i Berlin, var Busk i gang med en enorm collage, som
forestillede en ensom krbling, sat sammen af hundredvis af papirstrimler, der lnede
sig til en stok. Han s ud, som om han enten skulle have vret p en anstalt eller var i
frd med at kmpe sig frem ad en stvet vej. I stedet fremstod han p en vild baggrund,
som svingede mellem et kompakt, mangefarvet harlekinmnster, snoede kruseduller,
afrikanske masker og semi-konstruktivistiske kompositioner lavet af snor. Med sin hjde
p over 1,8 m dominerede collagen rummet. Trods dens enorme fremtrden sknkede
jeg den ikke mange tanker; den forekom blot at vre det seneste jebliks galskab i Busks
atelier et vrk lavet af rester, som mske og mske ikke humper ud i verden p et
senere tidspunkt.
Efter jeg kom tilbage til New Zealand, dukkede denne runkne skikkelse imidlertid
ofte op i mine tanker. Efter ere r vk fra mit hjemland var jeg lamslet over, hvordan
dets koloniale fortid stadig incerer alting. Jeg var isr optaget af en mand ved navn Rua
Kenana, Maori-profet og medlem af Tuhoe-stammen p den centrale del af norden frst
i det 20. rhundrede [g. 32]. Rua mente, han var spet til at efterflge krigerhvdingen
Te Kooti, som havde grundlagt Ringatu-religionen (en hybrid mellem kristendom og
traditionel Maori kosmologi). Rua hvdede ogs, at han var reinkarnationen af Kristus,
62
Bi g Chi ef on St. Jos eph s, 2011
Fi g. 33
sendt ud for at lede sit folk til det forjttede land. Han grundlagde New Jerusalem
en bosttelse for hans menighed med sine egne love og sociale strukturer baseret p
hans benbaringer og sregne fortolkninger af Biblen. Bosttelsens vigtigste bygning
var Hiona (Zion): en toetages rund bygning, der fungerede som kirke, parlament og
domhus. Bygningens udvendige udsmykning var lige s usdvanlig som dens runde
form: en frise af bl klr og gule ruder. Allerede fr Rua havde Ringatu-troen fastlagt
spillekortsymboler som mnemoteknikker klr stod for Kongen der skal komme og
Hellignden, mens ruder reprsenterede bosttelsens hellige skjulte sten: Rua erklrede,
at han var i besiddelse af en af de tolv diamanter, som var fordelt mellem Israels spredte
stammer.
3

Efterhnden som bosttelsen voksede, kom Rua til at udgre et problem for folk uden
for dens grnser. Maorier, som ikke var blandt hans flgesvende, s ham som en leder,
der virkede uden for de traditionelle stammestrukturer, og det gjorde ham vanskelig
at styre. For Pakeha (europiske newzealndere) var han hverken en rigtig vild eller
64
Rua Kenana ( 1869- 1937)
Fi g. 32
Announci ng your plans i s a god way to hear God laugh, 2010
Fi g. 34
en fuldt integreret kolonial underst. Til sidst blev truslen ved hans ind-imellem-hed
for meget for myndighederne. Den 2. april 1916 rykkede en stor politistyrke anfrt af
en voldelig irsk strisser ved navn John Cullen ind i New Jerusalem for at arrestere Rua
og tilintetgre bosttelsen. Under slagsmlet blev to maorier drbt og ere betjente
sret. Den dag i dag ved ingen, hvem der lsnede det frste skud. Det blev stort set
enden p Ruas regeringstid som profet-konge, men han spger stadig i newzealandsk
kultur som lederen, der levede hinsides maorisk og vestlig moral og kom tt p at opn
absolut forlsning fra begge. Han var et forskruet spejlbillede af en kultur p trsklen
til moderniteten. Med sit lange, krllede hr og Kristus-lignende skg fremstod han
som en messiasskikkelse. Ikke desto mindre var han ofte ulasteligt kldt i vestligt
jakkest, og sjldent uden en stok, hvilket bde var udtryk for europisk krukkeri og
et ekko af maorikulturens talestave (som markerer en talers mana eller autoritet). I
sidste ende var Rua et produkt af sammenstdet mellem det moderne og det mytiske;
et halvguddommeligt vsen, der opererede uden for kolonimagtens kontrol som seer,
fupmager og magtudver, og hvis aura truede parallelle rigers mentale grnser.
ANNOUNCI NG YOUR PLANS I S A GOOD WAY TO HEAR GOD LAUGH
Jeg prver ikke p at antyde, at der skulle vre en eksplicit sammenhng mellem den
vakkelvorne skikkelse med stok p Busks enorme collage og denne for lngst afdde
Frelser fra den anden side af kloden. Men jeg antyder, at han er et resultat af lignende
energier, fordi den kamp mellem modernitet og myte, som Rua reprsenterer, og den
deraf flgende symbolik og kaos, er af afgrende betydning i Busks arbejde.
Hos Busk nder dette sin forlsning p grnsen til en anden Ny Verden: det
amerikanske Vesten. Mytologien om det Vilde Vesten er fyldt med skikkelser som Rua
narrekonger hvis moralske forskydning og sandhedsbenbaringer tvang et ubarmhjertigt
samfund til at se p sit eget spejlbillede. Det bemrkelsesvrdige her er ikke s meget
Busks fascination af det Vilde Vesten i sig selv, men hans fascination af nutidens
genfortolkninger heraf. Hans snrklede titler giver vigtige ledetrde i den henseende,
fordi mange af dem er direkte citater fra TV-serien Deadwood. Serien udspiller sig
omkring den virkelige by af samme navn under guldfeberen, og det farverige persongalleri
omfatter en frdig skarpskytte-forvandlet-til-falskspiller, en sexgal enke fra stkysten,
en grublende sherif, en blodtrstig vrtshusholder og hans forgudende hndlanger, en
slesk lille hotelejer, en gal prdikant, en luder med et hjerte af guld, en ubestikkelig
landsbylge samt selveste Calamity Jane, fuld og for evigt srgende over tabet af Wild
Bill Hickock. Efterhnden som handlingen udvikler sig, lukker murene sig, og Vestens
enorme vidder indskrnkes til et intimt provinsielt, shakespearsk teaterrum, hvor sprog,
moral, sex og vold strkkes til det yderste.
Busks vrker er befolket med lignende gurer: truende outsidere der lider af den
samme klaustrofobi. Der er for eksempel landevejsrvere som den grublende og
66
Cloak and Dagger, 2011
Fi g. 35
68
forkldte skikkelse i Cloak and Dagger, 2011 [g. 35]. I Trinkteufel, 2012 [g. 36] tumler
en ok drukkenbolte gennem mrket, glade lige nu, men formentlig i stand til at gribe
til vold, hvad jeblik det skal vre. Truslen om vanvittig religis fanatisme ses i Can
You Please Let Me Go to Hell the Way I Want To?, 2009 [g. 37], hvor vi konfronteres
med en vild mand med langt hr i undertj, kappe og hj hat. Vi tilbydes en snusket,
uhyggelig skge i Thy Wretched Wife, 2011 [g. 45]. I They Come in Steel thats Bright
and True, 2011 [g. 43] stirrer en vanvittigt udseende, piberygende guldgraver ud p os.
Og i Big Chief on St Josephs, 2011 [g. 33] ser en vild i ceremoniel kldedragt ud til at
vre klar til at springe ud af rammen.
4
Indrmmet, ingen af disse gurer fremstr som
tydelige, genkendelige portrtter, og deres absurditet peger lige s meget i retning af
James Ensor, Cobra og Art Brut som det Vilde Vesten. Busk ville vre den frste til at
vedkende sig disse pvirkninger, men der er ikke desto mindre en strk parallel mellem
hans egne visioner og skuepladsen i Deadwood. Begge er udtryk for vores tids behov for
myter; i en kultur hvor alt er overeksponeret og konstant til skue, tillader disse arketyper
os at omfavne skyggerne igen og p ny forbinde vores legemlighed med vores moral,
mens vi famler gennem mrket.
En af de vigtigste begivenheder i Deadwood mordet p Wild Bill Hickock i
Saloon No. 10 er baseret p kendsgerninger. Hickocks morder, Jack McCall, var en
ung guldgraver, som han havde slet ved pokerbordet aftenen forinden. McCall havde
forhjet Hickocks indsats, men, da han ikke havde nok jetoner, havde han i stedet kastet
en pose guldstv p bordet. Hickock vandt omgangen, guldet blev vejet, og McCall
havde stadig for lidt. I stedet for at acceptere et gldsbrev insisterede Hickock p, at
den unge mand tog tilbage til sin lejr og skaffede det udestende belb, hvilket han
gjorde. Nste dag vendte han tilbage til Saloon No. 10 og skd Hickock, som var midt
i en hnd, i baghovedet. Da det skete, sad Hickock angiveligt med en ret god hnd: to
par, essere og ottere (i pokersprog er denne hnd siden blevet kendt som dd mands
hnd). Mere interessant er dog den hnd, som han havde haft umiddelbart forud for
denne. Hickock havde mistet hele sin stak jetoner ved at ramle et Fuldt hus ind i Fire
ens. Om der nogensinde har vret et forvarsel om, at grimme ting var i vente, m dette
absolut vre det. Hickock som ikke kunne modst afstraffelse havde netop forhjet
sin kredit hos ejeren af No. 10, da McCall trdte ind i baren.
Denne begivenhed er en af Vestens grundlggende historier, og den giver noget
af forklaringen p, hvorfor poker er s dybt forankret i amerikansk mytologi. Poker
beskrives ofte ukorrekt som en amoralsk aktivitet, men som enhver seris spiller vil
sige, er det frst og fremmest et spil, hvor det kommer an p dygtighed. I modstning
til andre former for hasardspil beherskes spillet fuldstndigt af spillerne. Det er ogs
den absolutte sandheds spil: n spiller vil altid have den strkeste hnd. Problemet for
spillerne er, at disse sandheder er skjulte, fordi de ikke kan se hinandens kort, og derfor
m de handle ud fra ufuldstndig viden (til forskel fra skak, for eksempel, hvor spillerne
hele tiden kan se alle brikker og deres placering). Dette betyder, at det mange gange er
den drligste hnd, der vinder: en spiller, der er i stand til at bluffe, kan sagtens sl en
Can you pleas e let me go to hell the way I want to? , 2009
Fi g. 37
Tri nkteufel, 2012
Fi g. 36
L homme aux s emelles de vent, 2010
Fi g. 38
modstander med tre konger. Selv en spiller, som sidder med en hj Flush kan begynde
at se dmoner, afhngig af hvordan hans modspillere opfrer sig. I stedet for amoralsk
er poker alts snarere et spil hinsides moral, og det var prcis derfor, det trngte ind i
sjlen p Vestens pionerer, guldgravere og vagabonder. Det satte lovlsheden i deres
daglige livsfrelse i relief, simpelthen fordi de slap for det irriterende valg mellem rigtigt
og forkert. Uden for pokerspillet afhang alt af moralske beslutninger. I poker behvede
spillerne ikke bekymre sig om det. Alt, hvad de behvede, var at overbevise, lokke, narre
eller chikanere deres vej til sejr.
Poker udgr en meget stor del af Busks liv og tankegang og ligeledes af mit. Grunden
til at jeg besgte hans udstilling i London, var, at jeg havde mdt ham et par mneder
tidligere, ikke i en kunstsammenhng, men som modspiller ved et pokerbord. Selvom
spillet nu sluger meget af min opmrksomhed, var jeg p det tidspunkt en novice. Rent
faktisk var de eneste to erfarne spillere ved bordet Busk og spillets vrt, Aaron Bogart.
5

Jeg genkendte med det samme den alvor, som Busk behandlede spillet med; med sine skift
mellem et stirrende udtrykslst ansigt, drillende bemrkninger og frk selvsikkerhed
var han den frste, der k mig til at forst, at poker, mere end noget andet, er en scene
at optrde p. Jeg har siden erfaret, at han overfrer disse teatralske aspekter direkte i
sit arbejde. Hans gurer er netop den slags surrealistiske banditter og ballademagere,
som man kan forvente at mde ved et pokerbord. Ligesom modspillere skjuler de lige
s meget, som de viser. Og med et nt greb afspejler formen ofte indholdet: med deres
underlige hovedbekldning, kostumer og ade kroppe fremstr de som spillekort. Deres
stdende frontalitet og konfrontationssgende isolation fra hinanden betyder, at rummet
mellem dem det rum vi optager som beskuere er det, der betyder mest: et skjult bord
som spydige bemrkninger, trusler og en skrkkelig masse bluf yver hen over.
L HOMME AUX SEMELLES DE VENT
Engang i starten af 1905 begyndte harlekiner at dukke op i Picassos malerier. Der
er forskellige forklaringer p, at det sker: Picasso havde mdt en omrejsende trup af
akrobater; hans voksende interesse for parisisk teater, og at han muligvis havde set I
Pagliacci (Bajadser), en populr opera om blodtrstige Commedia dellarte-skuespillere;
et nske om at bruge teatralske aspekter og bevgelse til at bryde den Bl Periodes
blodlse kvlertag. Den mest overbevisende forklaring nder vi dog i John Richardsons
fremragende biogra om kunstneren: indydelsen fra digteren Guillaume Apollinaire.
Iflge Richardson, opfordrede Apollinaire Picasso til at forestille sig selv i forskellige
roller, isr roller som kunne forsyne ham med en outsider personlighed. Richardson
skriver:
Efter omkring et rs venskab holdt Apollinaire, som pstod at have lrt om magi af
alferne i Fagne, et spejl, i form af et digt, op for Picasso og viste ham hans spejlbillede
72
Cons ei l Judi ci ai re, 2010
Fi g. 40
74
som Harlequin Trismegistus, en dmonisk troldmand. Digteren kendte de gamle vallonske
legender om her-lequin en sjl der er sluppet bort fra helvede.
6
Picassos tidlige harlekinvrker udforskede alle aspekter af denne foranderlige arketype.
Han prsenterer en udtryksls og foruroligende androgyni i Akrobat og ung harlekin
(Acrobate et jeune Arlequin), 1905 [g. 39]. I skrende modstning hertil er der varme
tegninger af harlekin som ung far. Desuden bliver han til en deprimeret parisisk dranker
i Au Lapin Agile. Og han portrtteres som lirekassemand (Hurdy-Gurdy) med uplejet
skg, spilledse og bld hattepuld; en skikkelse hvis udsvvende og voldelige liv synes
at have sat sig i furerne i hans hrgede ansigt.
Picassos moderne harlekin har sine rdder i renssancens hofnarre og Shakespeares
Pablo Pi cas s o ( 1881- 1973)
Akrobat og ung harleki n, 1905
Fi g. 39
Fuck em i f they can t take a joke, 2011
Fi g. 41
elisabethanske tber; gurer som kunne handle og tale ustraffet, fordi deres kostumer
og absurde optrden gav dem den beskyttelse, der var ndvendig for at holde et spejl
op for et samfunds herskende elite. Da hofnarrene begyndte at forsvinde, blev deres
satiriske rolle overtaget af Commedia dellarte, en form for omrejsende teater som skd
op rundt om i Europa i det 16. rhundrede, og hvor harlekin var en central gur. Hans
karakteristiske dragt med sit mnster af romber signalerede, at han var en kaotisk kraft
i spillene: liderlig, destruktiv, charmerende eller ondskabsfuld, afhngig af hans humr.
Denne dragt blev srkendet for Picassos egne harlekinmalerier. Dens afgrnsede
farvelagte romber er en underdebatteret forlber for hans senere kubistiske facetter, der,
meget lig harlekins udtalelser, var forsg p at blotlgge den levede erfarings hemmelige
sandheder. Men lige s vigtigt var det, hvordan Picasso ikke alene afbildede harlekin,
men ogs blev ham: en undergravende fupmager med kreative, nsten magiske krfter.
Stende p kanten til moderniteten tog han denne mytiske arketype op som en mde at
bearbejde den foranderlige verden omkring ham. Det var en identitet, som forblev hos
ham resten af hans liv.
Busks vrker er fyldt med referencer til harlekin. Hans vanvittige kostume dukker
op igen og igen som en umiddelbar markr af anderledeshed, vanvid eller banditstatus.
I Lhomme aux semelles de vent, 2010 [g. 38], for eksempel, str vi over for en vinget
skikkelse i harlekindragt, med arme dekoreret med et sjalsmnster, der ser ud til at
ville folde sig ud, og benene dkket af en latterligt stribet trikot.
7
Hans let bvede
ansigt har to gigantiske Picasso-ske mandeljne, og han str p en platform op mod
en mrk baggrund, som sagtens kunne vre en scene. Fordi denne grund er s svr at
bestemme, ades hele rummet ud til et enkelt plan, hvilket fr skikkelsen til at se ud som
en udklipsgur, der er sat fast p overaden. Som flge heraf markerer harlekins romber,
at han er optrdende, men de spiller desuden en vigtig strukturel rolle, idet de giver
skuespillerens ellers fravrende krop form. Det er interessant, hvordan disse gurer, nr
de dukker op i det virkelige rum, som de gr i Busks keramiske vrker, kollapser. Conseil
Judiciare, 2010 [g. 40], for eksempel, har mange af srkenderne ved Busks harlekiner,
med dens skre hat og forvredne lemmer, og alligevel er den sunket ind i sig selv; en
lavstammet version af dens malede slgtninge. Men, som titlen antyder, er den akkurat
lige s villig til at give os forrykte rd, fanget et eller andet sted mellem galning og n,
der afslrer ubehagelige sandheder.
FUCK EM IF THEY CANT TAKE A JOKE
Alt dette Rua Kenana, Deadwood, poker, Picasso, harlekin forankrer Busks
vrker i et bestemt historisk jeblik, nemlig forrige rhundredskifte hvor sammenstdet
mellem kulturer og fremdriften mod modernitet gjorde, at man tog narren til sig som
en form for mytisk svar p forandring. Men hvis det er det hele, ville Busks vrker
vre forfrdelig nostalgiske. Faktisk er hans omfavnelse af fupmageren udtryk for en
76
The Exi le s return, 2011
Fi g. 42
helt igennem vigtig og nutidig holdning, fordi narren er post-atomalderens altafgrende
arketype. Lige siden 11. september er vores frygt for forrykte konger, som er i stand til at
forrsage total udslettelse, blevet erstattet af en anden type paranoia over for vanvittige
mnd, der lemlster os, fordi de udlser kaos med mere beskedne terrorhandlinger. Vi
er stive af skrk for den usynlige skikkelse; det skjulte ansigt som leende konspirerer
mod os. Det uvirkelige ved deres handlinger i vores virkelige rum, og deres frydefulde
dans hen over moralske grnser, gr dem bde skrmmende og fascinerende.
Og alligevel er vi ogs afhngige af narren som sikkerhedsventil for en overpresset
og stadig mere konservativ kultur. Man behver blot se p de seneste kulturelle
manifestationer af dette, ssom Batmans Joker. I forhold til Busks vrker er guren
Omar Little i tv-serien The Wire mere relevant (Busk bruger en af Omars mest ikoniske
replikker, You come at the King, you best not miss (Hvis du gr ls p Kongen,
m du hellere ramme plet), som titel p sin frste soloudstilling p Galleri Christina
Wilson i 2006). Omar er landevejsrver, tyv og enspnder, njagtig som falskspillerne
i det amerikanske Vesten. Hans ansigt er arret: en uforklarlig deformitet som vidner
om en voldelig fortid. Og i det homofobiske milj, som kendetegner storbyens sorte
bandekultur, er det en form for deformitet i sig selv, at han er bsse (da Avon Barksdale
udlover en dusr for Omar, kalder han ham en pikslikker; ikke bare som en nedsttende
betegnelse, men som en konstatering af en kendsgerning som han vmmes over). Omar
er ogs jokeren i okken: en gur som udlser kaos alene ved sin truende fremtrden,
men som ikke desto mindre ogs er den, der giver overordentligt velformulerede indblik
i andre personer.
Narrens mangfoldige roller som sandhedssiger, underholder og trussel er helt tydelige
i Busks vrker. I Cloak and Dagger, 2011 [g. 35] str en forkldt skikkelse mod en
baggrund af giftig gul regn. Hans lange frakke er et rod af dobbelt skravering, og hans
ansigt er s deformt, eller tilslret, at det er umuligt at vide med sikkerhed, om han str
med siden til eller ansigtet vendt mod os. Han kunne lige s let vre en eller anden
skuespiller eller skabekrukke som kriminel eller terrorist. Uanset hvad rummer han
en skjult trussel om konspiratoriske handlinger. I The Exiles Return, 2011 [g. 42], et
pragtfuldt trsnit, er dette endnu tydeligere. Vi ser endnu en gur indhyllet i en kappe,
hvis griselignende hoved, som enten er en maske eller en stor deformitet, forsvinder i
Busks virvar af riller. I den ene hnd holder han noget, som enten kunne vre en stok
eller et svrd; et vedhng der er s tyndt, at det kan tjene begge forml sttte, men
ogs gennembore. P det ene ben ses harlekins rombemnster, mens den anden fod
er stukket ned i en lang sko med en komisk krlle p spidsen. Han er ad, r og ikke
helt menneskelig og brer sin historie bde i titlen og i de mlbevidste bevgelser; har
mske netop selv fet retfrdigheden udmlt og er p vej til at levere sin egen.
For mig opsummerer The Exiles Return hvorfor Busks vrker er s betydningsfulde.
Til trods for alle deres hentydninger til historien og myter er hans gurer absolut nutidige.
De er banditter og narre, hver og n. De agerer uden for samfundets og teknologiens
grnser, de trder uden for tid og rum for at holde enetale, terrorisere, konspirere, hne
78
They come i n s teel that s bri ght and true, 2011
Fi g. 43
1 Jeg er Lara Strongman umdelig taknemmelig for at
minde mig om dette citat, som ndrede alting.
2 Busks udstilling i London havde titlen Currahee,
som er en tillempning af et Cherokee-ord, der betyder
st alene. Det 506. luftbrne regiment i den ameri-
kanske hr bruger det som klenavn for sine medlem-
mer, som en henvisning til regimentets motto vi str
alene sammen. Regimentet var involveret i ere afg-
rende slag under 2. Verdenskrig og blev uddeliggjort i
TV-serien Kammerater i krig (Band of Brothers). Cur-
rahee er titlen p seriens frste episode.
3 Patricia Te Arapo Wallace, Jack, Queen, King: Play-
ing Cards as Inuence of Empire?. Revideret indlg
fra konferencen The New Zealand Empire Costume and
Textile Symposium, Napier, juni 2009, 9-10. Fundet p
Academia.edu.
4 Dette er imidlertid ikke en titel hentet fra Dead-
wood, men fra tv-stationen HBOs drama Treme, som
handler om tiden efter orkanen Katrina.
5 Bogart har skrevet udfrligt om forholdet mellem
poker og Busks malerier. Se Aaron Bogart, All In, in:
Signe Glahn (ed.), No Pasaran, MONITOR, Rome
2012, 4-37.
6 John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume I: The
Prodigy, 1881 1906, Random House, New York 1991,
334.
7 Titlen p dette vrk, som kan oversttes til manden
med sler af vind, var Paul Verlaines klenavn for Ar-
thur Rimbaud. De to digtere indledte et lidenskabeligt
forhold frst i 1870erne, hvor Verlaine engang skd og
srede sin unge elsker.
eller f os til at le. Den langsomme proces med at male dem frem forekommer som
en pervers form for krtegn, som nring af grimhed og deformitet i en verden, der
lovpriser, og stter pris p, overadisk fuldkommenhed. Selvom de er naglet fast i deres
rum, har de ikke desto mindre symbolsk og psykisk kraft til at krybe ind i vores, hvor
de udnytter vores frygt, men de giver os ogs en meget tiltrngt forlsning. I sit ateliers
stille teater overvger Busk frembringelsen af dybsindige og foruroligende jeblikke;
simple manifestationer af anderledeshed som i lige grad udlser sm blger af kaos og
forkvaklet sknhed.
Anthony 8yrt cr skribcnt og pokcrspillcr bosiddcndc i Auckland, Ncw Zcaland. Hans artiklcr har bl.a. vrct
bragt i Artforum International, frieze og Art World.
My first encounter with Peter Linde Busks
work came in a tiny London gallery in early
2011. Busk had covered the walls with his
paintings and prints. There was also a cluster
of ceramics, dotted like clumps of white light
through the space. I dont know what Id
expected an exhibition of paintings probably
but not this complicated choreography. The
works, and the gures contained within them,
called out to each other, argued, jostled for
attention. But out of that tussle, one emerged
on top. In the painting Neurotic Imposters,
2010 [g. 44], three men seeped, like ghosts,
from what I have come to understand as
Busks characteristic gloam; a restless, rainy
ground the colour of thin mud. In another
artists hands, the gures may well have
stayed buried in the muck. Busk though, had
turned them into hieroglyphs, scrawling their
outlines with yellow crayon. With their wild
eyes, bent bodies and mad crowns, they were
unquestionably neurotic, but their imposture
was harder to dene: maybe they were trying
to convince us they were kings. In the end, I
decided they had the presence of demented
tricksters; chaotic forces that destabilised the
relationships between every other element in
the show with their inescapable glare.
Not long after seeing that exhibition, I
started to visit Busks Berlin studio. Like the
gallery, it was a relatively small space, packed
tight with half-nished canvases, archival
drawers lled with works on paper, and
similar ceramics. Almost all of the paintings
contained strange, twisted people. Like his
imposters, they stared out in various states of
completion and agitation, each one seeming
to place different demands on Busk: some
needed to be reworked; others scrubbed out
altogether; others stayed the hell away from,
such was their looniness. Collectively, they
formed a kind of theatre-in-the-round as
both audience and players to Busks lead role:
the artist orchestrating the action from the
centre of the room. Although there is a lot of
love and humour in this, there is some cruelty
too. Its rare, for example, to see Busks actors
in a group he usually keeps them isolated
THREE KI NGS
ANTHONY BYRT
Truths a dog must to kennel; he must be whipped out,
when Lady the Brach may stand by the re and stink.
Fool, King Lear.
You come at the King, you best not miss.
Omar Little, The Wire.
1
TOMORROW AI N T PROMI SED TO NO ONE
83
Neuroti c I mpos ters, 2010
Fi g. 44
possession of one of the twelve diamonds
allocated to the scattered tribes of Israel.
3

As the settlement grew, Rua presented
those beyond its boundaries with a problem.
For Maori who didnt follow him, he was a
leader operating outside traditional tribal
structures, and that made him difcult
to contain. For Pakeha (European New
Zealanders), he was neither a full savage nor
a fully assimilated colonial subject. Ultimately,
the threat of his in-between-ness became too
much for the authorities to tolerate. On 2
April 1916, a large group of police, led by a
strongarm Irish copper called John Cullen,
entered New Jerusalem to arrest Rua and
break up the settlement. In the fracas, two
Maori were killed and several ofcers were
wounded. To this day, no one knows who
red the rst shot. It was essentially the end
of Ruas reign as the prophet king, but he still
haunts New Zealand culture, as a leader who
lived beyond Maori and Western morality
and came close to achieving absolute release
from both. He was a twisted reection of a
culture on the cusp of modernity. With his
long, curly hair and Christ-like beard, he
manifested a Messianic presence. And yet
he was often immaculately turned out in
Western suits, and rarely without a cane,
which was both a European affectation and
an echo of the talking sticks used within
Maori culture (these designate a speakers
mana, or authority). Rua, ultimately, was
the product of the modern colliding with
the mythic; a semi-divine being operating
beyond colonial controls as a seer, trickster,
and wielder of power, whose aura threatened
the psychic borders of parallel Kingdoms.
ANNOUNCI NG YOUR PLANS I S A GOOD WAY TO HEAR GOD LAUGH
Im not trying to suggest that the wonky,
cane-carrying character in Busks giant collage
has anything explicitly to do with this long-
dead Saviour from the bottom of the world.
But I am suggesting that he is the result of
similar energies; because the battle between
modernity and myth that Rua represents, and
its ensuing symbolism and chaos, are central
to Busks work.
For Busk, this nds its release in a different
New World frontier: the American West.
Wild West mythology is full of gures just like
Rua jester-kings whose moral displacement
and visions of truth forced a ruthless society to
look at its own reection. What is signicant
here is not so much Busks fascination with the
Wild West per se, but with its contemporary
reinterpretations. His ornate titles provide
crucial clues in this regard, because many
of them are direct quotes from the HBO
television series Deadwood. Centred around
the real-life town of the same name in the
gold rush, the shows elaborate cast includes
a washed-up sharpshooter-turned-cardsharp,
on oversexed East Coast widow, a brooding
sheriff, a murderous publican and his doting
henchman, a fawning little hotelier, a mad
preacher, a whore with a heart of gold, an
incorruptible town doctor, and Calamity Jane
herself, drunk and forever mourning the loss
of Wild Bill Hickock. As the action develops
the walls close in, and the vast expanses of
the West are reduced to the intimacy of a
provincial, Shakespearian theatre in which
language, morality, sex and violence are all
stretched to their human limits.
85
from each other.
2
They are often deformed:
mistakes of nature with wings springing from
their backs, beaks growing from their faces,
awkward ippers for feet. Many are crippled,
with missing or crooked limbs. Busk also has
a habit of xing them stify to his ambiguous
surfaces, as though theres an ongoing battle
between his need to contain them and their
own mad desire for escape.
Watching Busk in his studio, I learned that
he is a restless tinkerer. Just as I felt he was
starting to make some breakthroughs with a
batch of paintings, I would arrive to nd them
Towards the end of my time in Berlin, Busk
was working on a massive collage. In it, a lone
cripple, assembled from hundreds of strips of
paper, leaned on a cane. He looked as though
he should either have been in an asylum or
struggling down some dusty road. Instead, he
was set against a wild background that veered
between a tightly stapled, multi-coloured
Harlequin pattern, swirling doodles, African
masks, and faux-Constructivist compositions
made from string. At more than six feet
tall, the collage dominated the room. Even
with its huge presence, I didnt give it much
thought; it seemed just the latest moment of
madness in Busks studio a work crafted
from leftovers that may or may not limp out
into the world at some later time.
But when I returned to New Zealand,
I often found this wizened gure in my
thoughts. After several years away from
my home country, I had become transxed
with the way its colonial past still infects
everything. I was particularly preoccupied
with a man called Rua Kenana, an early-
stacked away, replaced by collages or giant
woodcuts instead. But despite these shifts,
he is always, and unrelentingly, a painter.
By this I mean that everything he makes is
driven by a painters view of the world: an
understanding of the relationships between
materiality and image, and a theatrical ability
to embed physicality, sex, myth and history in
a single illusory space, outside of xed time.
Few artists are capable of managing this with
such subtlety. But fewer still manage anything
like Busks most dening characteristic: his
peculiar form of chaotic, moral release.
I VE GOT NO EXPECTATI ONS TO PASS THROUGH HERE AGAI N
twentieth century Maori prophet and
member of the Tuhoe tribe in the central
North Island [g. 32]. Rua believed he was
the prophesied successor to the warrior-chief
Te Kooti, who had founded the Ringatu
religion (a hybrid between Christianity and
traditional Maori cosmology). Rua also
claimed to be a reincarnation of Christ, sent
to lead his people to the Promised Land. He
founded New Jerusalem a settlement for
his followers with its own laws and social
structures based on his revelations and
idiosyncratic interpretations of the Scriptures.
Central to the settlement was Hiona (Zion):
a two-storeyed circular building that served
as church, parliament, and court. Just as
unusual as its round structure was its external
decoration: a frieze of blue clubs and yellow
diamonds. Even before Rua, the Ringatu
faith had established playing card symbols
as mnemonics the club stood for the King
Yet to Come and the Holy Ghost, while the
diamond represented the sacred hidden stone
of the settlement: Rua stated that he was in
84
player holding a strong ush can start seeing
demons, depending on the behaviour of his
opponents. So rather than being amoral,
poker is a game beyond morality, and this is
exactly why it seeped into the psyches of the
Wests pioneers, prospectors and vagabonds.
It offered a perfect foil to the lawlessness of
their daily lives, simply because it took away
the vexing choice between right and wrong.
Outside the poker game, everything rode on
moral decisions. Inside it, players didnt need
to care. All they needed to do was convince,
cajole, trick or bully their way to a win.
Poker is a very big part of Busks life and
thinking, as it is mine. The reason I had gone
to see his show in London was because Id
met him a couple of months earlier, not in
an art context, but as an opponent at a poker
table. Although the game now consumes
much of my attention, at the time I was a
novice. In fact, the only two experienced
players at the table were Busk and the
games host, Aaron Bogart.
5
I immediately
recognised the seriousness with which Busk
treated the game; moving between a dead-
mans stare, smart-alec gibes and a brash
condence, he was the rst person to help
me understand that poker is, above all else, a
platform for performance. Ive since learned
that he transposes this theatricality directly
into his work. His characters are exactly the
kinds of surreal outlaws and troublemakers
one might expect to encounter at a poker
table. As opponents, they hide as much as
they show. And in a nice twist, form often
mirrors content: with their strange headgear,
costumes, and attened bodies, they have
the presence of playing cards. Their abrasive
frontality and confrontational isolation from
each other means that the space between
them the space we occupy as viewers is
what matters most: an unseen table across
which taunts, threats, and an awful lot of
blufng y.
L HOMME AUX SEMELLES DE VENT
Some time around the start of 1905,
harlequins started to appear in Picassos
paintings. There are various explanations for
this: Picasso encountering a travelling troupe
of acrobats in Paris; his increasing interest
in Parisian theatre and the possibility that
he saw I Pagliacci, a popular opera about
murderous Commedia dellarte performers; a
desire to use theatricality and movement to
break the anaemic stranglehold of the Blue
Period. But John Richardson, in his brilliant
biography of the artist, provides the most
compelling explanation: the inuence of the
poet Guillaume Apollinaire. According to
Richardson, Apollinaire encouraged Picasso
to imagine himself in different roles, in
particular those that might provide him with
an outsider persona. Richardson writes that:
After a year or so of friendship, Apollinaire,
who claimed to have learnt about magic from
the elves of the Fagne, held a mirror, in the
form of a poem, up to Picasso and showed
him his reection as Harlequin Trismegistus,
a demonic magician. The poet knew the old
Walloon legends about her-lequin a soul
escaped from hell.
6
Picassos early Harlequin works explored
every aspect of this shape-shifting archetype.
87
Busks work is littered with similar
characters: threatening outsiders suffering
from the same claustrophobia. There are, for
example, highwaymen, like the brooding and
disguised gure in Cloak and Dagger, 2011
[g. 35]. In Trinkteufel, 2012 [g. 36], a group
of drunks stumble through the dark, happy
for now, but presumably capable of violence
at any moment. The threat of crazed, religious
fanaticism makes its appearance in Can You
Please Let Me Go to Hell the Way I Want to?,
2009 [g. 37], in which a wild man with long
hair confronts us in his underwear, a cape
and a top hat. Were offered a bedraggled,
gruesome harlot in Thy Wretched Wife, 2011
[g. 45]. In They Come in Steel thats Bright
and True, 2011 [g. 43], a mad-looking, pipe-
smoking prospector stares out at us. And
in Big Chief on St Josephs, 2011 [g. 33], a
savage in ceremonial dress looks ready to
leap out of the frame.
4
Granted, none of these
gures take the form of obvious, locatable
portraits, and their absurdity points as much
to James Ensor, Cobra and Art Brut as the
Wild West. Busk would be the rst to admit
these inuences, but there is nonetheless a
strong parallel between his own visions and
the theatre of Deadwood. Both demonstrate
our contemporary craving for myth; that in
a culture where everything is over-exposed
and permanently on display, these archetypes
allow us to embrace shadows again, and
reconnect our physicality with our morality
as we fumble through the dark.
One of Deadwoods most important
events the murder of Wild Bill Hickock
in the Number 10 Saloon is based on fact.
Hickocks killer Jack McCall was a young
prospector hed beaten at the poker tables the
night before. McCall had called Hickocks
bet, and, not having enough chips, had
thrown in a bag of gold dust in lieu of the
shortfall. Hickock won the hand, the gold
was weighed, and McCall was still short.
Rather than accepting an IOU, Hickock
insisted the young man return to his camp
and raise the outstanding amount, which he
duly did. The next day, he returned to the
Number 10 Saloon and shot Hickock, who
was mid-hand, in the back of the head. At
the time, Hickock was allegedly holding a
pretty good hand: two pair, Aces and Eights
(in poker folklore, this is known as the Dead
Mans Hand). More interesting though, is
the hand that had immediately preceded it.
Hickock had lost his entire stack by running
his Full House into Four of a Kind. If ever
there were a premonition of bad things to
come, this would surely be it. Hickock a
sucker for punishment had just extended
his credit with the Number 10s proprietor
when McCall entered the bar.
This event is one of the foundational
stories of the West, and goes some way
towards explaining why poker is so deeply
embedded in American mythology. Poker
is often incorrectly portrayed as an amoral
activity, but as any serious player will tell you,
it is primarily a game of skill. Unlike other
forms of gambling, the players themselves
are entirely in control of the game. It is also
a game of absolute truth: someone is always
holding the strongest hand. The problem
for its players is that those truths are hidden
because they cant see each others cards, and
as a result, they have to act with imperfect
information (this is different from chess,
for example, where the players can see every
piece and its location at all times). This
means that the worst hand often wins: a
player holding nothing but air can easily
beat an opponent with three Kings. Even a
86
Barksdale calls Omar a cocksucker; not just
as a pejorative term, but as a statement of fact
that disgusts him). Omar is also the Joker
in the pack: a gure who unleashes chaos
through the mere threat of his appearance,
and yet who also offers extraordinarily
eloquent insights into other characters.
The jesters multiple roles as truth-teller,
entertainer and threat are clearly evident
in Busks work. In Cloak and Dagger, 2011
[g. 35], a disguised gure stands against a
background of toxic yellow rain. His long
coat is a mess of cross-hatching, and his face
is so deformed, or covered, that its impossible
to know denitively whether he is standing
side-on or facing us. He could just as easily be
some actor or poseur as criminal or terrorist.
Either way, he carries the hidden threat of
conspiratorial action. The Exiles Return, 2011
[g. 42], a magnicent woodcut, makes this
even clearer. We see another cloaked gure
whose pig-like head, which is either a mask
or some gross deformity, disappears into a
mess of Busks gouges. In one hand, he carries
what could either be a cane or sword; an
appendage so thin it serves both purposes
to support, but also to pierce. On one leg, we
see the diamond pattern of Harlequin, while
the other foot extends into a long shoe with a
comedic turn at its tip. He is at, brutal and
not-quite human, carrying his history both
in his title and his purposeful movements;
returning, perhaps, from having justice meted
out to him to deliver some of his own.
The Exiles Return, for me, sums up why
Busks work is so important. For all their
allusions to history and myth, his gures
are utterly contemporary. They are outlaws
and jesters, every one of them. They operate
FUCK EM I F THEY CAN T TAKE A J OKE
All of this so far Rua Kenana, Deadwood,
poker, Picasso, Harlequin anchors Busks
work in a particular historical moment; the
turn of the last century, when the collision
of cultures and the drive towards modernity
saw an embrace of the jester as a kind of
mythic response to change. But if thats
all there was to it, Busks work would be
horrendously nostalgic. In fact, his embrace
of the trickster is a profoundly urgent and
contemporary position, because the jester is
the essential archetype of the post-nuclear
age. Ever since 9/11, our fear of mad kings
bringing about total annihilation has been
replaced by a different paranoia about crazed
men maiming us, unleashing chaos through
more modest acts of terror. Were petried of
the invisible gure; the hidden face who plots
against us, laughing. The unreality of their
acts within our real space, and their blissful
dance across moral boundaries, makes them
both terrifying and fascinating.
And yet we also rely on jesters as release
valves for an over-pressurised, increasingly
conservative culture. One only needs to look
at recent cultural manifestations of this, such
as Batmans Joker. More relevant to Busks
work is the gure of Omar Little from The
Wire (Busk used one of Omars most iconic
lines, You come at the King, you best not
miss, for the title of his rst solo exhibition
with Galleri Christina Wilson in 2006).
Omar is a highwayman, robber and loner,
exactly like the cardsharps of the American
West. His face is scarred: an unexplained
deformity that points to a violent past. And in
the homophobic world of black, urban gang
culture, his gayness is a kind of deformity in
itself (when issuing a bounty on him, Avon
89
He offers up a blank and troubling androgyny
in Acrobat and Young Harlequin (Acro-
bate et jeune Arlequin), 1905 [g. 39]. In
stark contrast, there are warm drawings
of Harlequin as a young father. He also
becomes a depressed, Parisian drinker in Au
Lapin Agile. And he is portrayed as Hurdy-
Gurdy Man with a scraggly beard, music box,
and soft crown; a gure whose history of
debauchery and violence seems buried in the
lines of his gaunt face.
Picassos modern Harlequin had its roots
in Renaissance court jesters and Shakespeares
Elizabethan fools; gures who were able to
act and speak with impunity, their costumes
and absurd performances giving them the
protection needed to hold a mirror up to a
societys ruling elite. As court jesters started to
fade away, their satirical role was taken up by
the Commedia dellarte, a form of travelling
theatre that sprang up around Europe in the
sixteenth century, in which Harlequin was
a central gure. His characteristic suit of
diamonds signalled him as a chaotic force
within the plays: libidinous, destructive,
charming or vicious, depending on his mood.
This suit became the hallmark of Picassos
own Harlequin paintings. Its diamonds of
delineated colour provide an under-discussed
precursor to his later Cubist facets, which
were, much like Harlequins pronouncements,
attempts to expose the hidden truths of lived
experience. But just as important was the way
Picasso not only portrayed Harlequin but
also became him: a disruptive trickster with
creative, near-magical powers. Standing on
the edge of modernity, he took up this mythic
archetype as a way to process the changing
world around him. It was an identity that
stayed with him for the rest of his life.
Busks work is full of references to
Harlequin. His crazed costume appears
again and again as an immediate signier
of otherness, madness, or outlaw status.
In Lhomme aux semelles de vent, 2010 [g.
38], for example, were confronted with a
winged gure in a Harlequin suit, with arms
decorated in unfurling paisley and absurdly
striped tights covering his legs.
7
His vaguely
bovine face supports two giant Picasso-esque
almond eyes, and he stands on a platform
against a darkened background that could
easily be a stage. Because that ground is so
hard to dene, the entire space is attened
to a single plane, making the gure seem
like a cut-out pinned to the surface. As a
consequence, Harlequins diamonds designate
him as a performer but also have an important
structural role, giving the actors otherwise
absent body form. Its interesting that when
these gures spring into real space, as they
do in Busks ceramics, they collapse. Conseil
Judiciare, 2010 [g. 40], for example, has
many of the hallmarks of Busks Harlequins,
with its crazy hat and twisted limbs, and yet
it has slumped into itself; a stumpy version of
its painted relatives. But, as its title suggests,
its just as prepared to offer us crazed advice,
caught somewhere between madman and a
revealer of uncomfortable truths.
88
Thy wretched wi fe, 2011
Fi g. 45
beyond society, beyond technology, stepping
outside time and space to soliloquise, terrorise,
conspire, pour scorn or make us laugh. The
slow act of painting them into existence
seems a perverse sort of caress; a nurturing
of ugliness and deformity in a world that
praises, and prizes, easy perfection. Pinned
down in their spaces, they nonetheless have
the symbolic and psychic power to creep
into our own, tapping into our fears but also
providing us with a much-needed release. In
the quiet theatre of his studio, Busk oversees
the production of profound and troubling
moments; simple acts of otherness that
release ripples of chaos and twisted beauty in
equal measures.
1 I am immensely grateful to Lara Strongman for
reminding me of this quote, which changed everything.
2 Busks London show was called Currahee, which
is an adaptation of a Cherokee word meaning stand
alone. The 506
th
Airborne Infantry Regiment of the
United States Army uses it as a nickname for its mem-
bers, as a pointer to the regiments motto we stand
alone together. The regiment was involved in several
crucial World War II battles, and was immortalised in
the HBO series Band of Brothers. Currahee is the rst
episodes title.
3 Patricia Te Arapo Wallace, Jack, Queen, King:
Playing Cards as Inuence of Empire?, Amended
conference paper presented at The New Zealand Em-
pire Costume and Textile Symposium, Napier, June 2009,
9-10. Retrieved from Academia.edu.
4 This, however, is not a title taken from Deadwood,
but from HBOs post-Hurricane Katrina drama,
Treme.
5 Bogart has written eloquently about the relation-
ship between poker and Busks paintings. See Aaron
Bogart, All In, in: Signe Glahn (ed.), No Pasaran,
MONITOR, Rome 2012, 4-37.
6 John Richardson, A Life of Picasso, Volume I: The
Prodigy, 1881 1906, Random House, New York
1991, 334.
7 The title of this work, which translates to the man
with soles of wind, was Paul Verlaines nickname for
Arthur Rimbaud. The two poets entered a tempestu-
ous relationship in the early 1870s, including an inci-
dent in which Verlaine shot and wounded his young
lover.
Anthony 8yrt is a writcr and pokcr playcr bascd in Auckland, Ncw Zcaland. His writing has appcarcd in
Artforum International, frieze and Art World, among other publications.