the cooking of spam in portugal - new work by: jeremy kennedy

“The Cooking of Spam in Portugal”
New work by: jeremy kennedy
opening: Saturday March 13th 2010
at White Vinyl Space
(3320 NW 2 Ave / Miami, FL 33127)

artist statement type thing:

as an artist, one of my greatest interests is world history. Unfortunately, ...

as well as modern world and how/why people struggle with it in modern societies. originally, i had planned the title: “the cooking of spam in portugal” for a book that i have been working on. then i look at work for show and realize it’s the same, or an extension of the same material in the book.

i had the idea of keeping the title for both the same and using it in combination with the numeral “2”.
other titles for consideration included:
-“home is where the pool is.”
-“u gotta take the lunch of life”
and
-“i dream of a mean chicken.”
the show is called this and the book has a new title, which escapes me at the moment...but that’s not the point.

I find the title to be a great term i can use to make relevant the extent of interest i have in the world. from the ethnographic survey and exploration of my home office (esp. the shelf thing directly above my desk) to my curiosity of what they’re doing, or have done with spam in portugal.

especially guided and regarded w/out reason, from the dark age to present, these artifacts collected for dissemination in all areas, at different times and for different purposes. when i say “we met on the bus.”, this could mean this literally or something to the effects of: “we never hang out much anymore”, “hold my hand in the swamp”, etc.

i want to show the importance of confusion in and with the world around us. i like typos. The typos in this article could change how it is regarded by you. or it could change how you regard me or the artwork. translation errors...those may be even more fun. i make an effort to perceive things through a “child-view”. a feel incredibly strong in my belief that nothing is worthless. a really terrible song, image, object, animal, anything! At the right time, in the right setting, all things have value.

another part of this whole thing could be easily explained by my personal distaste for song lyrics, or rather lyrics that i can understand that have “meaning”. i am a huge proponent of instrumental music. this is in no way saying that i dislike the sound of the human voice, quite the contrary. i just enjoy it more when i cannot understand what is being said/sung. i like reggae because of this. i know something is being said, and in english possibly, but i have no idea what for the better part. i also enjoy non-english singing from all around the world, as well as non-language, rather interpretive singing.
i like not knowing. i like onamonapea.
(in closing, before closing, the c. of s. in p. means to include a bunch of stuff in the world. And idea)


Along with the above-mentioned interests, food (even in light of being a vegetarian with an eating disorder) and things on sale are highly resonating topics in my work. This food is funny, most things are funny, and some things are funnier with a price tag. World history is funny, and can be made even more so with a little rewriting.
-jeremy kennedy (2010)

“life is eat and die” – yamantaka eye.

special snacks to: j. shelley harrison, ara mark, debra wasserman and united judaic growers guild of sacramento, john carpenter, crab jackson, shane edge (shawn egg), the folks at “barely 18” magazine, nasc, the kwop organization, socal, tree thousand press, skip van cel, georgia m. richards, the man from 1st meat, the ewok from the meat team, table blue brand, pharaoh sanders, jamie rincker, peter brotzmann, everybody there who still believe in jeremy kennedy, and the miami dolfins.