Sayre Gomez
Advertisements for Myself: From Mailer to Me, Me, Me! (2010)
18 x 24 inches, xeroxed copy and colored pencil on paper
unique edition of 7 + 3 Art Prints
Price: $75
Dark Good Lion
By Sayre Gomez
Lorem Ipsum (Delorem Ipsum), rougly translated from Latin means Pain Itself, and is most commonly known as Greek type. Greek is a tool used by graphic designers who are laying out text in a magazine or publication, but have yet to receive the actual content. The designer goes to a website and specifies how many words or paragraphs are desired and a block of dummy text is instantaneously generated to this length. Greek uses as its foundation a discernable passage from Cicero’s The Extremes of Good and Evil and this discernment is accredited to Richard McClintock, a Latin Professor at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. In the 1960’s it was printed in large sheets made by Letraset. But the passage is now subjected to a process using algorithms with hundreds of random Latin words and a variety of permutations within pre-existing sentence structures that work to create a never repeating, potentially endless arrangement of words and pseudo-words that create the visual appearance of the English language. Cited below is first Cicero’s original unedited passage, followed by its English translation. And following Cicero’s writing is a greeked text five paragraphs long translated into English using translation-guide.com and Notre Dame University’s ablemedia.com.
*** CICERO’S PASSAGE:
Sed ut perspiciatis, unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam eaque ipsa, quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt, explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem, quia voluptas sit, aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos, qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt, neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum, quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci[ng] velit, sed quia non numquam [do] eius modi tempora inci[di]dunt, ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure repreh- enderit, qui in ea voluptate velit esse, quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum, qui dolorem eum fugiat, quo voluptas nulla pariatur? At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus, qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti, quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint, obcaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa, qui officia deserunt mollitia animi, id est laborum et dolorum fuga. Et harum quidem rerum facilis est et expedita distinctio. Nam libero tempore, cum soluta nobis est eligendi optio, cumque nihil impedit, quo minus id, quod maxime placeat, facere possimus, omnis voluptas assumenda est, omnis dolor repellendus. Temporibus autem quibusdam et aut officiis debitis aut rerum necessitatibus saepe eveniet, ut et voluptates repudiandae sint et molestiae non recusandae. Itaque earum rerum hic tenetur a sapiente delectus, ut aut reiciendis voluptatibus maiores alias consequatur aut perferendis doloribus asperiores repellat...
*** THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF CICERO:
But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain itself, because it is pain, but occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure? On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be repudiated and annoyances accepted.
The wise man therefore always holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid worse pains.
*** FIVE PARAGRAPHS OF COMPUTER-GENERATED GREEK TYPE TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH:
Pain itself to love go undeclined seeking, to come up from. To suspend to lay lion and not prefix meaning half-word price dust my avenging. Now mat of rushes out of reason of conveyance. When enterance bow or torturer annoyed or an expression of prefix meaning half- foul and corrupt matter. Up to the time when upon hate blandishments the god of the tincidunt and the middle ride. In two ways life according freedom. Twice if why not pain , anyone to add to a heap lion. As yet narrow pass fellowship heavy weighted and walk in the middle. Consequent person responsibly advance a race. As yet price, is this conveyance a race not useless equity servant is 50 , upon servant is pain when master. To suspend but fellowship to set free.
Phasellus good skirmish cause war to cite the god of the underworld always to add to a heap anyone when a small spoon. Twice unless, to grow strong to come up to the hem of a garment required without ill-advising and laughter. Up to the time when some word, a hollow required blandishments was of conveyance. Now that well known the fear and not the seeker of Titus, cut apart, was passing lamentation of a hollow, and not the arrow, but a hollow water jar in fact. Eneus, not any divine provocation of poisoned life. Providing needed passage, good itself to congeal the same upon the master. Some was expression. Now life to set free life bow various blandishments. To suspend this my but worthless citations of thirst.
No variety according to reason bow but to sail. Eneus but to pass this tied throat to grow strong. None worthless to hate born but undeclined value moved but prefix meaning half-. A fleet of a hundred ships accomidating silently companions to propitiate to turn very sexual union our, very beginner burden was, first principle good mator rushes life shovel or divine with supernatural radiance. Vestibule before itself first upon passes narrow underworld lamentation and avenging to lay bed Management; Some husk thyself tied to hate authority according to reason. For worthless fear, crime but to grow strong and, word upon was. Pellentesque to have frequent sickness to make sad old age and new and ill-advised famine and unseemly extreme poverty. When various annoyance bow, not decorated is conveyance and. not was worthless drink disturbance to make sad, word and a hollow. But fellowship measured unseemly, when vestibule to set free sometimes life.
Vestibule before itself first upon narrow passage the underworld lamentation and avenging to lay bed Management; Upon grief and fear pain easy urn soft and vestibule pain vestibule. Mauris itself you. Up to the time when measured to make fit to hate , life and pain the same or. Now any space of the soul fermention wise, but a small group or prefix meaning half- avenging infection with poison. When a hollow. To suspend soft fermentation to add to a heap. Sickness laughter was measuring life according to reason dust , to lay need itself. Up to the time when march some if not but defeat. Vestibule carry how he is in love of equity defeat not concern to hate soft.
Tomorrow decorates infection according to reason. Now good is not Moore’s a thrower bestowed lack or worthlessness. But disturbance before anyone daylight according to reason and not the fringe no invocation. Twice life now upon is always lesser but to hate. Pellentesque augue bow, various and undeclined belief, easy but fluid. Dark good lion this to hate hunt vestibule this and wise. Phasellus or to raise up lorem. Up to the time when to please pain upon how annoyance. Each one honored region how , and to grow strong pain. No master prefix meaning half-, a race directed eleifend to be without a mat of rushes but is. Some good was lorem.
Sayre holds a BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago (2005) and an MFA from CalArts (2008). Recent solo exhibitions include Self Expression or Fog and Other Works at Kavi Gupta Gallery Berlin, and Self Expression at 1430 Contemporary in Portland, Oregon. Recent group exhibitions include California Dreamin', curated by Fred Hoffman as part of Arte Portugal 2010, Other People's Projects at White Columns in New York, and The Awful Parenthesis curated by Aram Moshayedi at Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles. Gomez was born in Chicago, Il and currently lives and works in Los Angeles.
For his Limited Edition artwork, Sayre chose to photograph a sculpture that he had previously made for an auction, a work potentially never to be seen again. He requested to borrow the piece back in order to document it. All the conventions of neutral documentation are ignored here and a hyper-fetishized version of the sculpture is presented. Each "ad" is adorned with his own name, in a variety of different languages - a reference to Norman Mailer's 1959 novel Advertisements for Myself, which was criticized for a promoting a certain kind of self-indulgence, a work simultaneously liberating and constricting.