Triple Diesel

Jason Rhoades (JR): Open those gates! Part those lips, baby!

St. Peter (SP): Introduce yourself, please.

JR: I'm Jason Rhoades! Whoo-hoo, what a ride! Look at the view from up here! Hey, where is the scaffolding to support this place?

SP: Heaven needs no scaffolds, Jason. Heavenly souls are weightless.

JR: Sounds great! So where do I sign in?

SP: Jason, heavenly souls must be accepted. What are your qualifications?

JR: I've shown installations in some of the best galleries, kunsthalles, and museums worldwide; exhibited in the Venice Biennale and the Whitney; and I've even collaborated with Paul McCarthy.

SP: Yes, but why should we let you into heaven? What good deeds have you accomplished?

JR: Well, I contributed to art a simultaneous celebration and deconstruction of masculinity. I examined American consumerism, exposing our material excesses and messy, crowded, decentralized ideals and lack thereof. Formally, I encompassed the last 50 years of art, invigorating a legacy dating back to Duchamp.

SP: I've heard from the others about your "meccatuna." Why such irreverence? Is this colonialism, or at least insulting to Islam? And the profane colloquialisms for the female reproductive organ - misogyny?

JR: No, no! Of course, tuna is a joke about vaginas, but it's also a joke at the expense of masculinity. You know, as if men have one-track minds. Think of the legos involved - boys' toys. The entire installation drips with machismo - the machines, cords, tools, hot and noisy atmosphere...

SP: Why challenge masculinity? Shouldn't men retain their dominance over the lesser sex?

JR: No, that's a dated ideal, Pete. But I just use machismo as a vernacular, and an entry into American cultural criticism. I act out the American and take on the American. You know, like Richard Prince's Marlboro Man photos.

SP: Right, right...we keep forgetting about that. 2000 years of patriarchy make for a habit hard to shake. Okay, but why can't you just make a simple sculpture? Rodin brought some wonderful sculptures...

JR: Yeah, but a scattered - decentralized - installation is more contemporary, reflecting how our monolithic beliefs have been shaken, and how a pluralistic culture has flooded the vacated space. You can link this to Thomas Hirschhorn, Jon Kessler, Robert Morris, Eva Hesse, Duchamp...

Plus, to fill a space is more phallic. It's like "clogging" a void - filling a hole.

SP: (nervous chuckle) Okay, Jason. It's sounds as if you accomplished a lot. And in such a brief period of time! I suppose the art world - though filled with heathens and greedy wastrels - will miss you. Sorry for the grilling, but some of you artists can be very recalcitrant. But you can enter heaven. Enter here.














Above: Triple Diesel, "Jason Rhoades Entering Heaven (Various Virgins)," 2006