I'm too sad to tell you

I'm Too Sad to Tell You (1970–71) is a mixed media art work by conceptual artist Bas Jan Ader.[1] The work includes a three-minute black-and-white silent film, still photographs and a post card all related to him crying for an unknown reason. The photographs include both a short hair version and a long hair version.[2] The post cards were mailed to his friends with the inscription “I'm too sad to tell you”.[3] There was an original, now lost, version of the film called “Cry Claremont”. It was shown in the Pomona College Gallery in Claremont, California in 1971-72.[4]

The reason for his sadness is never stated in the work.[5]

Composition and history

The work's original form was a silent black and white movie shot outdoors in 1970 apparently in front of Ader's house. The movie was shown in Claremont college, but has since been lost.[4] A still from the movie, however, was extracted and made into a post card. It shows Ader with his head in his hand crying. The back of the post card had the written inscription “I'm too sad to tell you”. It was dated September 13, 1970. The card was mailed to a number of Ader's friends. The image has also been reproduced in a photographic version with the inscription written in the lower right hand corner. The post card and photograph have become iconic of the work and a symbol that many artists have emulated (see Influence below).

A second version of the film was made in Amsterdam in 1971. This was more of a performance with Ader appearing to be calm before the shooting and rubbing his eyes during the filming to produce tears and build emotional intensity. Ten minutes of film was shot with the final version edited to about three and a half minutes. The edited version captures Ader at his most anguished. His face is framed closely. There is no introduction or conclusion, no reason given and no relief from the anguish that is presented. Critics have said that it is hard not to be affected by the film, with its offering of “raw passion to anyone willing to watch”.[5]

Critical interpretation

The work has inspired many critical interpretations and analysis.

There seems to be an overall tension between the sincerity of the artist's captured emotions and performance aspects of the works. Artists James Roberts and Collier Schorr, for example, feel the works are at once intensely personal and yet very arbitrary. There was a true reason for Ader's sadness, but that is not shared with us.[6] Bruce Hainley, contributing editor to Artforum, thinks the reasons for his sadness are beside the point. In his view, Ader walks a fine line between sincerity (the sadness is real) and melodrama (the work is staged multiple times).[7] Jörg Heiser, coeditor of Frieze (magazine), views the work as an ironic statement of the artist taking on all of the embarrassment of the expressed emotion while leaving it open as to whether or not the viewer takes on the embarrassment as well.[8]

Women reviewers have been more critical. Jennifer Doyle in her book “Hold it Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art” feels the work may be seen as real due to the tradition of the “melancholy white male artist”. She sees this in contrast to how a woman would have been perceived as either acting or in hysterics.[9] Journalist Betty van Garrel goes so far as to say (in translation) "Ader is a sentimental loser, a romantic softie, a problem case and not even original in that."[10]

Influence

"I'm too sad to tell you" has influenced a large number of artists, with many composing interpretations and homages to the work. These include:

“My appropriation of this visual has a strategic aim. I myself do not fit the cliché of a tragic artist.... It is the reactions it will produce with the audience that interest me.” [11]
"If you look at my book, all the images are with people's hands to their faces...this was actually a direct reference to Ader's image." [12]

References

  1. ↑ Nato Thompson, “Bas Jan Ader Please Don't Leave Me”, Bomb (magazine), Summer 2007
  2. ↑ Ira Glass, “This American Life 20: From a Distance”, NPR radio transcript, 1996
  3. ↑ Cindy Loehr, “Bas Jan Ader: Retrospective”, New Art Examiner, March 2000
  4. 1 2 Christophe Cherix, “In & Out of Amsterdam: Travels in Conceptual Art, 1960-1976, MOMA, 2009, ISBN 978-0-87070-753-7
  5. 1 2 Alexander Dumbadze, “Bas Jan Ader: Death is Elsewhere”, University of Chicago Press, 2013, p 152 et seq.
  6. ↑ James Roberts and Collier Schorr, “Bas Jan Ader”, frieze (magazine), June 1994
  7. ↑ Bruce Hainley, "Legend of the fall." Artforum International , Vol. 37, No. 7, March 1999
  8. ↑ , “All of a Sudden: Things that Matter in Contemporary Art”, Art & Research, A Journal of Ideas, Contexts, and Methods, Summer 2008
  9. ↑ Jennifer Doyle, “Hold it Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art”, Duke University Press, 12 March 2013
  10. ↑ Samuel Klaus, "Bas Jan Ader, Lost at Sea", LAS Magazine, 7 September 2007
  11. ↑ Alexander Brandt "I'm too sad to tell you" (2009)
  12. ↑ Rachel Peddersen “In conversation with David Horvitz”, Andreview, Fall & Winter 2013
  13. ↑ Vik Muniz, “Self Portrait (I Am Too Sad to Tell You, after Bas Jan Ader)(Rebus), PS1 NY exhibition, 11 February – 07 May 2007
  14. ↑ Mac Gallery, performance, 11 January, 2014
  15. ↑ Thomas Persson, "For the Moment | Thomas Persson on Lisa Rovner", NY Times, 15 April, 2008

External links

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