Good Friends at ASS
A friendship or an artistic collaboration, whether in twos, threes, or more comes fraught with peril and vulnerability from the very start. Whether the pair or group remain together after the work has been completed often says more about the collaboration than it does about whatever theme or process the artists were attempting to make work about. The idea of friendship and collaboration is key to 'Good Friends,' an exhibition currently on view through this Saturday, 9 July at the Asia Song Society in New York.
Peter Saul and Paul McCarthy’s Untitled (Cocks at War) is a Boschian hodgepodge of magic marker phalluses fighting each other with boxing gloves on. Hollywood actor, James Franco, and performance artist, Kalup Linzy, include a compilation of scenes from their joint appearances on the American soap opera General Hospital. The most poignant and touching piece in the show, however, is ‘Buddies,’ a record of a friendship between author Bruce Benderson (User, The Romanian) and his friend Eddie Mercado.
Bruce and Eddie had been good friends for seven years before Bruce decided he wanted to create a record of their friendship for posterity. The two men, who had collaborated on short stories together, started playing with a home video camera. They started interviewing each other about their views on subjects like pride, homsexuality, and drug use. At the end, Bruce asks Eddie how he knows they are true friends, to which Eddie replies, ‘Because you’ve always been there for me. You’ve never questioned me. You’ve never questioned my ways… Anyone that takes my side must be my friend.’
Their friendship would dissolve not long after a troubling incident where Eddie picked up a kitchen knife and gave Bruce the distinct impression that he might use it on him.
‘Good Friends’ is currently on view until July 9th at ASS.