Saturday, December 19, 2009

Procrastination is an Art Form. Really!

Well. So far I have bought all of two Christmas ornaments and a gift card. There are 6 shopping days left until Christmas, including today, so I have to say, I’m not doing very well.



Not on the Christmas shopping, dummy. On my performance art piece!

As you know, I’m tremendously interested in contemporary art, and especially conceptual art pieces. The concept behind my current work-in-progress is this: procrastination is an art form, and the less one does, the more conceptual and high-falutin’ one’s own life becomes. So if I do nothing at all for Christmas, my non-participation in the cultural and commercial Christmas as it’s observed in the Western world will make an artistic statement about everything having to do with holiday rituals, the ephemeral nature of material objects in 21st century society, and the importance of cultural heritage.

Wait. I finished that Museum Studies dissertation, so why am I still spouting academic claptrap?

No, my non-participation in things of Christmas spirit will simply prove that I am an incredibly slack housewife, who can’t be bothered to put up a tree. Yet.

Unfortunately, Mr D is totally unaware of my very important artistic endeavors. He arrived home from Paris at 3:25 am yesterday morning, after suffering through a 12-hour flight delay caused by Parisian snow. He then woke me from my delicious slumber with his thoughtless blundering about in the dark. Sigh. What can one do? And since then, today, he’s made every mistake in the book. Brought up the tree from the basement, which he’s now puzzling over. Put on Christmas music. Ornament boxes are appearing right and left. He’s trying to scotch my great art plan, and aggravatingly, there’s not even any Scotch involved.

Because frankly, this current artwork of mine cannot be successfully realized if I do not in some way equal the exquisitely poignant Christmas 1996 performance described here. [click here to read] The drama! The passion! The lack of initiative! The selfish slothfulness! The uncaring poor parenting disguised as exhaustion!

Oh heck. I’m afraid the die is cast. I’ll be putting up the Christmas tree this afternoon. Thanks for volunteering to help. Oh, you didn’t? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Typical.





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4 comments:

Madame DeFarge said...

Much as I'd love to help, I suspect that Christmas would be over by the time I arrived. And I'd help in the performance art piece too but I'm useless at art. So, actually, I'm no help to you at all, am I?

Christine said...

You should see my masterpiece of a conceptual light display on the outside of my house. It consists of one string of lights strung as high as my arms could reach. I have learned that in conceptual art, the title is everything! Right? my title:

She Ran Out Of Staples

Ooooo! I forgot to plug it in this evening! I will never get this display on a magazine cover if I keep this up!

expateek said...

Madame -- ah, but your comment is part of the artwork, so well done you!

Christine -- best title ever! You win!!

Anonymous said...

...guess you are still procrastinating on the Christmas Quiz huh?

Stainless1138