I was sent forth from the power,
 and I have come to those who reflect upon me,
 and I have been found among those who seek after me.
Look upon me, you who reflect upon me,
 and you hearers, hear me.
 You who are waiting for me, take me to yourselves.
And do not banish me from your sight.
 And do not make your voice hate me, nor your hearing.
 Do not be ignorant of me anywhere or any time. Be on your guard!
 Do not be ignorant of me.

For I am the first and the last. 
I am the honored one and the scorned one.
I am the whore and the holy one. 
I am the wife and the virgin. 
I am  and the daughter.
I am the members of my mother.
I am the barren one
 and many are her sons.
I am she whose wedding is great,
 and I have not taken a husband.
I am the midwife and she who does not bear. 
I am the solace of my labor pains. 
I am the bride and the bridegroom,
 and it is my husband who begot me.
I am the mother of my father
 and the sister of my husband,
 and he is my offspring.
I am the slave of him who prepared me. 
I am the ruler of my offspring.
 But he is the one who [begot me] before the time
  on a birthday. 
 And he is my offspring [in] (due) time,
  and my power is from him.
I am the staff of his power in his youth,
 [and] he is the rod of my old age.
 And whatever he wills happens to me.
I am the silence that is incomprehensible
 and the idea whose remembrance is frequent.
I am the voice whose sound is manifold
 and the word whose appearance is multiple.
I am the utterance of my name.

Why, you who hate me, do you love me,
 and you hate those who love me?
You who deny me, confess me,
 and you who confess me, deny me.
You who tell the truth about me, lie about me,
 and you who have lied about me, tell the truth about me.
You who know me, be ignorant of me,
 and those who have not known me, let them know me.

For I am knowledge and ignorance.
I am shame and boldness. 
I am shameless; I am ashamed.
I am strength and I am fear.
I am war and peace. 
Give heed to me. 
I am the one who is disgraced and the great one.

Give heed to my poverty and my wealth.
Do not be arrogant to me when I am cast out upon the earth,
 [and] you will find me in [those that] are to come.
And do not look [upon] me on the dung-heap
 nor go and leave me cast out,
 and you will find me in the kingdoms.
And do not look upon me when I am cast out among those who
 are disgraced and in the least places,
 nor laugh at me.
And do not cast me out among those who are slain in violence.
But I, I am compassionate and I am cruel.
Be on your guard!
Do not hate my obedience
 and do not love my self-control.
In my weakness, do not forsake me,
 amd do not be afraid of my power.
For why do you despise my fear
 and curse my pride?

But I am she who exists in all fears
 and strength in trembling. 
I am she who is weak,
 and I am well in a pleasant place. 
I am senseless and I am wise.

Why have you hated me in your counsels?
For I shall be silent among those who are silent,
 and I shall appear and speak.
Why then have you hated me, you Greeks?
 Because I am a barbarian among [the] barbarians?
For I am the wisdom [of the] Greeks
 and the knowledge of [the] barbarians.
I am the judgment of [the] Greeks and the barbarians.
[I] am the one whose image is great in Egypt
 and the one who has no image among the barbarians.
I am the one who is hated everywhere
 and who has been loved everywhere.
I am the one whom they call Life,
 and you have called Death.
I am the one whom they call Law,
 and you have called Lawlessness.
I am the one whom you have pursued,
 and I am the one whom you have seized.
I am the one you have scattered,
 and you have gathered me together.
I am the one before whom you have been ashamed,
 and you have been shameless to me.
I am she who does not keep festival, 
 and I am she whose festivals are many.
I, I am godless,
 and I am one whose God is great.
I am the one whom you have reflected upon,
 and you have scorned me.
I am unlearned,
 and they learn from me.
I am the one whom you have despised,
 and you reflect upon me.
I am the one whom you have hidden from,
 and you appear to me.
 But whenever you hide yourselves,
  I myself will appear.
 For [whenever] you [appear],
  I myself [will hide] from you.
Those who have [...] to it [...] senselessly [...].

Take me [... understanding] from grief,
 and take me to yourselves from understanding [and] grief.
And take me to yourselves from places that are ugly and in ruin,
 and rob from those which are good even though in ugliness.
Out of shame, take me to yourselves shamelessly;
 and out of shamelessness and shame, upbraid my members
  in yourselves.
And come foreward to me, you who know me
   and you who know my members,
 and establish the great ones among the small first creatures.
Come foreward to childhood,
 and do not despise it because it is small and it is little.
And do not turn away greatness in some parts from the
   smallnesses,
 for the smallnesses are known from the greatnesses.

Why do you curse me and honor me?
You have wounded and you have had mercy.
Do not separate me from the first ones whom you have [known].
[And] do not cast anyone [out nor] turn anyone away
  [...] turn away and [... know] him not.
  [... him].
  What is mine [...].
I know the [first ones] and those after them [know] me.

But I am the mind of [...] and the rest of [...].
I am the knowledge of my inquiry,
 and the finding of those who seek after me,
 and the command of those who ask of me,
 and the power of the powers in my knowledge
   of the angels, who have been sent at my word,
   and of the gods in their seasons by my counsel,
   and of the spirits of every man who exists with me,
    and of the women who dwell within me.
I am the one who is honored, and who is praised,
  and who is despised scornfully.
I am peace, 
  and war has come because of me.
I am an alien and a citizen.
I am the substance and the one who has no substance.

Those who are without association with me are ignorant of me,
 and those who are in my substance are the ones who know me.
Those who are close to me have been ignorant of me,
 and those who are far away from me are the ones who have
   known me.
On the day when I am close to [you],
   [you] are far away [from me],
 [and] on the day when I [am far away] from you,
   [I am close] to you.

[I am ...] within.
[I am ...] of the natures.
I am [...] of the creation of the spirits.
[...] request of souls.
[I am] control and the uncontrollable.
I am the union and the dissolution.
I am the abiding and the dissolving.
I am the one below,
 and they come up to me.
I am the judgment and the acquittal.
I, I am sinless,
 and the root of sin derives from me.
I am lust in (outward) appearance,
 and interior self-control exists within me.
I am the hearing that is attainable to everyone
 and the speech that cannot be grasped.
I am a mute who does not speak,
 and great is the multitude of my words.

Hear me in gentleness, and learn of me in roughness.
I am she who cries out, 
  and I am cast out on the face of the earth.
I prepare the bread and my mind within.
I am the knowledge of my name.
I am one who cries out,
  and I listen.
I appear and [...] walk in [...] seal of my [...].
I am [...] the defense [...].
I am the one who is called Truth,
  and iniquity [...].

You honor me [...] and you whisper against [me].
[...] victorious over them.
Judge then before they give judgment against you,
  because the judge and the partiality exist in you.
If you are condemned by this one, who will acquit you?
   Or if you are acquitted by him who will be able to detain you?
For what is inside of you is what is outside of you,
 and the one who fashions you on the outside
  is the one who shaped the inside of you.
 And what you see inside of you,
  you see outside of you;
  it is visible and it is your garment.

Hear me, you hearers,
 and learn of my words, you who know me.
I am the hearing that is attainable to everything;
  I am the speech that can not be grasped.
I am the name of the sound
  and the sound of the name.
I am the sign of the letter
  and the designation of the division.
And I [...].
[...] light [...].
[...] hearers [...] to you
[...] the great power.
And [...] will not move the name.
[...] to the one who created me.
  And I will speak his name.

Look then at his words
 and all the writings which have been completed.
Give heed then, you hearers
 and you also, the angels and those who have been sent,
 and you spirits who have arisen from the dead.
For I am the one who alone exists,
 and I have no one who will judge me.

For many are the pleasant forms which exist in
 numerous sins,
 and incontinencies,
 and disgraceful passions,
 and fleeting pleasures,
   which (men) embrace until they become sober
   and go up to their resting-place.
And they will find me there,
 and they will live,
 and they will not die again.

This translation is based on the edition of the Coptic text by G. W. MacRae, Nag Hammadi Codices V,2-5 and VI with Papyrus Berolinensis 8502,1 and 4, ed. D. Parrott, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1979, 231-55

D. M.
AELIA LAELIA CRISPIS
NEC VIR NEC MULIER
NEC ANDROGYNA
NEC PUELLA NEC JUVENIS
NEC ANUS NEC CASTA
NEC MERETRIX NEC PUDICA
SED OMNIA
SUBLATA
NEQUE FAME NEQUE FERRO
NEQUE VENENO
SED OMNIBUS
NEC COELO NEC AQUIS
NEC TERRIS
SED UBIQUE JACET
LUCIUS AGATHO PRISCUS
NEC MARITUS NEC AMATOR
NEC NECESSARIUS
NEQUE MOERENS
NEQUE GAUDENS
NEQUE FLENS
HANC NEQUE MOLEM
NEC PYRAMIDEM
NEC SEPULCHRUM
SCIT ET NESCIT 
CUI POSUERIT

HOC EST SEPULCHRUM
INTUS CADAVER NON HABENS
HOC EST CADAVER SEPULCHRUM
EXTRA NON HABENS
SED CADAVER IDEM EST
ET SEPULCHRUM SIBI

______________________________________________________

M A N I F E S T O

FOR MAINTENANCE ART 1969!

Proposal for an exhibition “CARE”

MIERLE LADERMAN UKELES

______________________________________________________

I. IDEAS

A.The Death Instinct and the Life Instinct:

The Death Instinct: separation; individuality; Avant-Garde par excellence; to follow one’s own path to death—do your own thing; dynamic change.The Life Instinct: unification; the eternal return; the perpetuation and MAINTENANCE of the species; survival systems and operations; equilibrium.

B. Two basic systems: Development and Maintenance.

The sourball of every revolution: after the revolution, who’s going to pick up the garbage on Monday morning?

Development: pure individual creation; the new; change; progress; advance; excitement; flight or fleeing.

Maintenance: keep the dust off the pure individual creation; preserve the new; sustain the change; protect progress; defend and prolong the advance; renew the excitement; repeat the flight; show your work—show it again keep the contemporary art museum groovy keep the home fires burning

Development systems are partial feedback systems with major room for change.

Maintenance systems are direct feedback systems with little room for alteration.

C. Maintenance is a drag; it takes all the fucking time (lit.)

The mind boggles and chafes at the boredom.

The culture confers lousy status on maintenance jobs = minimum wages, housewives = no pay.

Clean your desk, wash the dishes, clean the floor, wash your clothes, wash your toes, change the baby’s diaper, finish the report, correct the typos, mend the fence, keep the customer happy, throw out the stinking garbage, watch out don’t put things in your nose, what shall I wear, I have no sox, pay your bills, don’t litter, save string, wash your hair, change the sheets, go to the store, I’m out of perfume, say it again—he doesn’t understand, seal it again—it leaks, go to work, this art is dusty, clear the table, call him again, flush the toilet, stay young.

D. Art:

Everything I say is Art is Art. Everything I do is Art is Art. “We have no Art, we try to do everything well.” (Balinese saying).

Avant-garde art, which claims utter development, is infected by strains of maintenance ideas, maintenance activities, and maintenance materials.

Conceptual & Process art, especially, claim pure development and change, yet employ almost purely maintenance processes.

E.

The exhibition of Maintenance Art, “CARE,” would zero in on pure maintenance, exhibit it as contemporary art, and yield, by utter opposition, clarity of issues.

II. THE MAINTENANCE ART EXHIBITION: “CARE”

Three parts: Personal, General, and Earth Maintenance.

A. Part One: Personal

I am an artist. I am a woman. I am a wife. I am a mother. (Random order).

I do a hell of a lot of washing, cleaning, cooking, renewing, supporting, preserving, etc. Also, (up to now separately I “do” Art. Now, I will simply do these maintenance everyday things, and flush them up to consciousness, exhibit them, as Art. I will live in the museum and I customarily do at home with my husband and my baby, for the duration of the exhibition. (Right? or if you don’t want me around at night I would come in every day) and do all these things as public Art activities: I will sweep and wax the floors, dust everything, wash the walls (i.e. “floor paintings, dust works, soap- sculpture, wall-paintings”) cook, invite people to eat, make agglomerations and dispositions of all functional refuse.

The exhibition area might look “empty” of art, but it will be maintained in full public view.

MY WORKING WILL BE THE WORK

B. Part Two: General

Everyone does a hell of a lot of noodling maintenance work. The general part of the exhibition would consist of interviews of two kinds.

1. Previous individual interviews, typed and exhibited.

Interviewees come from, say, 50 different classes and kinds of occupations that run a gamut from maintenance “man,” maid, sanitation “man,” mail “man,” union “man,” construction worker, librarian, grocerystore “man,” nurse, doctor, teacher, museum director, baseball player, sales”man,” child, criminal, bank president, mayor, moviestar, artist, etc., about:

• what you think maintenance is;
• how you feel about spending whatever parts of your life you spend on maintenance activities;
• what is the relationship between maintenance and freedom;
• what is the relationship between maintenance and life’s dreams.

2. Interview Room—for spectators at the Exhibition:

A room of desks and chairs where professional (?) interviewers will interview the spectators at the exhibition along same questions as typed interviews. The responses should be personal.

These interviews are taped and replayed throughout the exhibition area.

C. Part Three: Earth Maintenance

Everyday, containers of the following kinds of refuse will be delivered to the Museum:

• the contents of one sanitation truck;
• a container of polluted air;
• a container of polluted Hudson River;
• a container of ravaged land.

Once at the exhibition, each container will be serviced: purified, de-polluted, rehabilitated, recycled, and conserved by various technical (and / or pseudo-technical) procedures either by myself or scientists.

These servicing procedures are repeated throughout the duration of the exhibition.

You will become aware that someone is following you, like an animal in the forest, only now in the darkness of the heavens. The person following you is your oblation, the being composed of the offering you made in your life. In a whisper, he will say to you, “Come here, come here, it is I, your Self.” And in the end you will follow him.

Roberto Calasso,  Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India

“Relying on cuts to reboot prosperity is a bit like starting a diet to treat Alzheimer’s: probably not going to work.”

“And I said, R.J., which is my older son, get up, son. And right when I said get up and I put my hands on him, the walls went, and he went. He just – he left. The tornado took him right then. I held onto what I have which is James Peter, and my wife held onto my other son, which I could hear her praying to my left. And I was praying over my boy, and I said -and I could see his little face (unintelligible) I could see him. He was looking up. I said it’s OK. It’s OK. And I was getting hit, you know? I was just shielding him. And my wife yells – she said: Do you have R.J.? I said no. I said I don’t. And then, I heard her get louder praying. And then, I started – I kept going, and I look up, and my oldest son come walking right through the rubble.”

— Reginald Eppes, a survivor of the deadly tornado that has already claimed nearly 300 lives, tells NPR how his oldest son was pulled from their home by the tornado.  His son survived and found his way back home with minimal injuries. Read full segment (centerforinvestigativereporting)

Via angelindiskies