Pinch Me

Salient Feature #7: The Pinch of Intentionality. The day after I met the Primitive for the first time, I noticed that, in the place where he had been resting, he left subtle markers of his presence. A piece of driftwood was moved onto the bench, and a smooth rock was wedged between the slats of the picnic bench. The latter technique is fairly common for the Primitive--simple objects are stuck, wedged, or pinched in the lattices of a bench or table. It now seems that these specific gestures may be a way for him to memorialize a moment of calm, well-being, or relaxation in the course of a rough existence. Sometimes, the intervention is unadorned--primitive, if you will--as with the smooth rock or crystal. At other times, it takes on the aspects of a drama. As with the straw-structure above, you are initially drawn to the pinch of intentionality, the sense of a prior artful presence, and you stay for the conversation between the the wiry, blackhaired red McDonald's straw and the weird, phallically-capped piece of tree.

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