bronze balls
Sadie (R.I.P.)
Reminiscence 2006
1. She spoke so fulsomely about her work. The only other artist I’ve ever heard sound so utterly self-assured was Anish Kapoor. Sadie was SO sure of her right to speak and BE in the world, to make art and be taken seriously.
2. Of course she was an absolute dilettante but schmoozed with such complete charm all was forgiven in her presence.
3. As if to demonstrate her insouciance she would get these fragile itsy bitsy little sculptures cast in bronze at vast expense then paint them and sprinkle them with glitter. It was so artfully artless.
4. In the early days she made these poignant monuments to love. They sold like hot cakes. Parkett commissioned one for it’s limited edition series.
5. I can honestly say, I never saw her without a surrounding bevy of handsome young men.
6. That woman knew the laws of the labyrinth.
7. She was always relaxed and smiling, never vexed.
8. I still see her in my minds eye, working a crowd with that sparkling smile but yunno……. I never once saw that smile extend beyond her mouth to her eyes.
9. There’s no getting away from the fact that she was well connected and circulated close to the top of the global power pyramid especially where money and art came together.
10. She seemed easy-going and even a little vague but she was shrewd. She knew what she doing and what was going on. No-one ever took advantage of her.
11. She had a pair of Larry Gagosian's underpants hanging on the wall in her hall way.
12. I believe that the most important thing for her when it came to making art was that it should be easy. Not only should it look effortless but it should actually be effortless.
13. When she turned to video as a medium there was no stopping her. She could just send her DVD’s all over the world and would always have several shows running concurrently.
14. She once told me that the idea for the video portraits had come when she was actually trying to make a contemporary self-portrait and had been editing some video footage of herself and realised how obsessed she had become with her own visage. It was a turning point when she decided to look outwards at others but still present it as a self-portrait.
15. That video self-portrait was always a work in progress and went on for hours and changed continually. She used to talk about the subject being constructed through its relations to others. It was a bit simplistic to expect that just by video taping her friends and acquaintances that they would reflect back a portrait of her. I suppose it worked in the sense that it illustrated her milieu. It was big hit anyway. I guess people like to see themselves and there was no shortage of takers lining up to be in it.
16. Some people got the impression she was dis-engaged, uncaring perhaps, even superficial and shallow. She appeared to slide across the surface of things and float carefree on a current of un-daunted self-confidence.
17. She gave me the heeby jeebies. That stare! She never seemed to really connect. There was a zombie quality- a blankness.
18. She didn’t seem deeply attached to any one particular place or indeed maintain any family connections as far as I could deduce. She never mentioned any family.
19. Nomadic is how I would describe her. She was at home in many places and distance was not a bother.
20. I remember seeing some photos of some wayside shrines she’d constructed in India. It looked like a superficial stab at spirituality to me, just making her own version but shinier.
21. I never knew her well but she was so beautiful and maintained a youthful radiance even as she aged.
22. She loved to seem generous but I never forget her smirking, superior expression as she examined the display of stuffed fabric creatures of that abject artist that sits on a blanket. I think Sadie stole some of her ideas but gave her nothing in return.
23. As a young school child she exuded a sense of superiority towards the teachers- it was as if she felt too mysterious and exotic to be bothered with their trivia.
24. I was with her once, just hanging out, drinking when she answered the phone and charmingly dismissed the caller with ‘I can’t talk now I’m in a meeting’! I’ve since adopted that strategy as my own.
25. Oh but she did everything with grace, positioning herself in a network of possibilities as she flitted between flowers in search of the most fragrant.
26. There never existed a concern with money and aquiring it but she always seemed to have enough.
27. All the artists hated her – I guess it was jealousy…..of how easy everything seemed to be for her.
28. Success came to her early. She sold a bronze for $20,000 when she was 19.
29. You’d often see her wearing red. That was her special colour. …….a red dress for special occasions. It was like a trademark look. She stood out at openings.
30. She always seemed well rested even though she didn’t appear to need a great deal of sleep. She could close her eyes and rejuvenate herself anywhere at anytime. I think that was the secret to her ability to travel widely and constantly across time zones. She just didn’t do jetlag.
31. Well, strangely she flourished in the midst of dislocation and could comfortably dwell in disorder.
32. I didn’t like her much. She seemed rather one dimensional.
33. Towards the end her artwork became increasingly fast and easy to make in a short amount of time and then it sold for ridiculously high prices.
34. The titles for her artwork? Damien Hirst had nothing on her in the wanky titles department! She was the specialist….eg. “the beautiful and frightening feeling of being without moorings…..untethered”. Chortle chortle.
35. Her art objects were just glorified ornaments really. She could waffle on about ideas relating to the ‘self’ and objects as self expression or self-portraits versus something to do with transcending and forgetting the self but I didn’t buy into it. It was all just art marketing jargon to me.
36. She gave the impression that she revealed herself in her work but that’s bollocks! She had no depth, no self worth exposing. I despised her. Flakey.
37. I once overheard her confess that she was supposed to wear glasses but found the world infinitely preferable without them….soft, soft focus. That might explain why she always found her own work so very wonderful!
38. Shameless and exploitative and totally lacking in authenticity….she was.
39. Light, sprightly and volatile are words that could be used to describe that woman as she loved to create and play and be on the move.
40. She cannily devised a practice in which she could skitter around and make whatever she fancied whilst somehow succeeding in the still prevalent modernist legacy of seeking and finding a significant repeatable form or style.
41. Her work was shit. It got crappier year by year as her prices got higher and higher.
42. Those video portraits!-I was in one of those. I felt quite used in the end although initially I was delighted and flattered to be included.
43. It’s easy to imagine that she’d developed such a healthy sense of self through receiving the appropriate narcissistic confirmation as a child.
44. I bet her mother’s eyes shined at her!
45. She was entirely lacking in vulnerability but exuded a sweetness which attracted kind and solicitous behaviour from others. That made me so fucking jealous.
46. I have to say, she was oblivious….on cloud nine.
47. We just loved that woman. She was so talented but made it all look so effortless. That for me is a sign of true genius. She will be greatly missed.
48. Part of her look was the subtle tan. No matter what location or time of year… she just glowed. I can’t say whether it was sprayed on or what but it didn’t look particularly fake…never orange.
49. As Zygmunt Bauman might say ..…she had freedom to move, freedom to choose, freedom to stop being whatever she already was and freedom to become what she was not yet. She belonged.
50. Her whole-hearted acceptance of disorientation, immunity to vertigo and her tolerance for fragmentation gave her the confidence to dwell in a chaotic world without recognising any danger.
51. Taking novelty as good tidings on an experiential level eventually led her astray.
52. They never found her body.
53. It is said that an art collector in Zurich is in possession of her skeleton but my suspicions lie elsewhere.
Compiled by sarah crowEST, 2006 after Christian Boltanski with some phrases inspired by the ‘Liquid’ theories of Zygmunt Bauman. Thank you Michelle Nikou for the sprues.
