My Chicago gallery, Feigen Inc., whose cutting-edge program, although enthusiastically subscribed to by me, was determined by the young codirectors, Lance Kinz and Susan Reynolds, had opened a summer group exhibition on June 23, 1995. Among the 24 artists in the show, there was a young Brooklyn conceptual sculptor, Gregory Green. Green, a pacifist, makes sculptures and performances about violence. His works are not themselves violent, and although they resemble tools of violence, like pipe, letter, and suitcase bombs… they contain no explosives and are in no way dangerous. On July 21 an article about Green appeared in the Reader and one of his Suitcase Bomb pieces was reproduced. On July 25 two bomb and arson squad detectives came into the gallery, followed the next day by Commander Grubisic of the bomb and arson squad and a colleague. Kinz explained Green’s work and thought he had satisfied the police on the explosives score.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
In the same exhibition, however, was another piece of Gregory Green’s, 10,000 Doses. This sculpture was about LSD and radical 1960s “counterculture empowerment strategies.” It consisted of 12 permanently sealed laboratory bottles, filled with an amber-colored fluid, set in two rows on an industrial table. The piece was placed in the front of the gallery, and on the gallery’s storefront window was printed a four-foot-high enlarged and altered recipe for LSD from The Anarchist Cookbook. You could see the sculpture through the recipe on the window.
Even in his own panic, when Lance asked Susan to phone me, he had also asked her for a camera to photograph the sculpture being confiscated. One of the cops warned him. Lance asked, “Are you denying me my right to photograph this?” The cop said, “Usually we just kick the door down, push guys like you up against the wall, and tear the place apart.” That, handcuffs, and a fast trip to the slammer for Lance….
