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Greer Lankton

It's All About ME, Not You

This play is a reflection on the (im)possibility of accepting diversity and the other. The fragmented body of the neoplasm—the fruit of unstable conditions—overcomes barriers, loves and denies itself and others, wanders around, forgetting its profession. It frequently and with pleasure divides, goes through dangerous palpation, questions the possibility of contact with the experience of the other. Poorly brought up but very successful, it invites us to a trans-species transition.

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Open a tall gate and pass through a narrow alley beside a “white trash” house. It is clad in white siding with old windows and an astroturf patio littered with fall leaves. Ruby slippers, at the end of legs in striped stockings, emerge from under the house. Inside, Greer Lankton recreated the Chicago apartment where she lived and worked.

The walls are painted in deep colors. Stars cover the ceiling. The room is inhabited by the dolls and figures Lankton made during the course of her life – Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, one of whom is anorexic, a morphine addict on a cot surrounded by pill bottles. Throughout the room are very personal shrines Lankton has created, to Patti Smith, Candy Darling, to Jesus, and others are for the artist herself.

Several of Lankton’s figures were included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and the 1995 Venice Biennale. Much of her work is clearly autobiographical, revealing her obsessions. Her work has been described by critic Holland Cotter as “art of a superbly disciplined and unusually distressing beauty.”

Thanks to the generosity of the Lankton family, It’s All About ME, no you was donated to the Mattress Factory for permanent display in 2009.

Artist Statement

I’ve been in therapy since 18 months old, started drugs at 12 was diagnosed as schizophrenic at 19, started hormones the week after I quit Thorazine got my dick inverted at 21, kicked Heroin 6 years ago. Have been Anorexic since 19 and plan to continue and you know what I say FUCK Recovery, FUCK PSYCHIATRY Fuck it all because I’m over it. Over the roof. I’m so sick I’m dead, so from now on I take no responsibility for my actions. Oh and I was fucked up the ass by my grandfather since age 5, been brutally raped twice and have had almost every major organ in my body fail at some point. Life support is no picnic for Rhoda so don’t EVEN take me there. By the way I’m an artist and Andy Warhol was the dullest person I ever met in my life. But he’s got a museum so what do I know. Hans Bellmer is my favorite artist.

Love always,
Greer

Artificial Nature
Total Indulgence
Dolls engrossed in glamour and self abuse
The vanity
The junkie
The anorexic
The chronic masturbator
“Its all about ME”
Not you
Trapped in my own world in my
Hhead in my tiny tiny
apartment

When

1996

About The Artist

Greer Lankton (1958 – 1996) was one of the most significant artists to have taken part in the revolutionary art scene of New York City’s East Village during the 1980s. Lanton grew up in Park Forest, IL, where she graduated a year early from high school to attend the Art Institute of Chicago from 1975 to1978. That year she moved to New York City and received her BFA from Pratt Institute in 1981. By then Lankton had secured her reputation as a leading figure in the social ferment of NYC in the 1980s through her visceral doll sculpture, and now lesser-known performances and minimalist soft sculpture. Lankton’s drawings are frequently compared to that of the expressionist Egon Schiele and her dolls and their photographic portraits, to that of surrealist Hans Bellmer. Yet her experimental and multimedia work are located within a history of transfeminism, avant-garde performance and even pop-art, while at the same time is equally situated within a neo-punk canon and the Trash Trilogy of John Waters films - Pink Flamingos being her favorite. Lankton’s exhibitions and performances included those at PS1, Club 57, Pyramid Club, Franklyn Furnace, Civilian Warfare Gallery, Hal Bromm and the Whitney Biennale, NYC. She also exhibited across the US and Europe, including the UK, Austria and the Venice Biennale, Italy. She exhibited her first full-scale installation artwork at the Mattress Factory Museum shortly before her untimely death in 1996.

Open a tall gate and pass through a narrow alley beside a “white trash” house. It is clad in white siding with old windows and an astroturf patio littered with fall leaves. Ruby slippers, at the end of legs in striped stockings, emerge from under the house. Inside, Greer Lankton recreated the Chicago apartment where she lived and worked.

The walls are painted in deep colors. Stars cover the ceiling. The room is inhabited by the dolls and figures Lankton made during the course of her life – Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, one of whom is anorexic, a morphine addict on a cot surrounded by pill bottles. Throughout the room are very personal shrines Lankton has created, to Patti Smith, Candy Darling, to Jesus, and others are for the artist herself.

Several of Lankton’s figures were included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial and the 1995 Venice Biennale. Much of her work is clearly autobiographical, revealing her obsessions. Her work has been described by critic Holland Cotter as “art of a superbly disciplined and unusually distressing beauty.”

Thanks to the generosity of the Lankton family, It’s All About ME, no you was donated to the Mattress Factory for permanent display in 2009.

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