ARTIST STATEMENTS

And the earth was dark, an unshapen mass of flame and fire. And the heavens were chaos: water and wind. And Bruce spoke the word and the word was good. He spoke,

“Let there be Bruce High Quality, art star from Jersey City. I stand before you not as a man, but as a head. Full of ideas, full of darkness and sadness - an unshapen mass.”

“Professional Challenges. Amateur Solutions.”

“The earth is my canvass. High Definition Television is my canvass. You, my friends and enemies, are my canvass. I want to paint you. Nude. Please remove your clothing and let me see your beauty free and wild like the tiger, wolf, fish, and fowl.”

“Give a man a mask and he’ll tell you the truth. Give a man a cat mask and he’ll lick himself and shit in a box.”

“I am a lonely creature as an artist must be. I am the long-sustained languorous keynote, waiting for a wish, fearing its fulfillment. Alas, a wish is fulfilled in me, Bruce High Quality, an angel blown backward from the fallout of history. My gift is a dark temptress. My gift is the sea. My gift is the impossibility of doing anything in the first place.”

“Artists are boring, not mad.”

“Less is more, more or less.”

“The most radical gesture of art is its own existence. I exist, yet I am impossible. Impossible is nothing. Nike.”

“My collaboration is with and against the images of this world, of your world, of the dark worlds we are not permitted to access.”

“History is a nocturnal emission that I am trying to enjoy.”

“Don’t say ‘can’t.’ Say ‘canarchy!’”

“I was born, as you were, into this world alone. And I will die alone. For now I avoid the question by engaging it. There is no one here but me: a chicken, a coward, a fool, a turkey, a problem, a sparkling diamond of obstinate failure. We’re all in this together. Ha, ha, ha.”

“In the future, everyone will have a foundation.”

A: Bruce, will you tell us about some of your art influences?

BHQ: Are my influences not readily apparent? Are they apparitions? Ghosts? When we speak of ghosts we are speaking of transparent beings, beings both seen and unseen, heard and unheard, loud and unimaginable - those rampant parts of our hearts that cannot stop themselves from restating what is already present: billboards, magazines, dreams, and nightmares. When there is a problem I videotape it. Then it becomes a more beautiful problem. When there is a problem, yo, I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it. Bruce, Bruce, Baby. Art is made with a revolver. Culture is just another word for nothing left to lose. When I hear the word culture I bring out my checkbook. I’m a loser, baby, so why don’t you kill me?

A: Bruce, could you tell us about a tragic moment in your life that has shaped your artwork?

BHQ: I fell from the World Trade Center and survived staring upward as dead and screaming bodies followed me down. I was too shocked to respond properly. The bodies looked like apple blossoms floating in the wind. I’m sorry. That is tasteless. But these are good and tasteless times. Good and tasteless times call for provocative reflections and murderous predictions. I apologize to those that believe there can be no poetry after Theodore Adorno. We must reflect regardless of the consequences. We must predict regardless of the fear. This is only the beginning, beeotch. Like the motor of history, I am a wild stallion. Fear not the earthquake, but the wave.