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Blueberry Surprise

Joseph Grigely

Blueberry Surprise

2006

Book (96 pages) consisting of one continuous text of 45,000 words, written by those to whom the artist spoke. Each change of color (red, orange and black) signifies the switch to “a new voice talking”, always by unknown characters.

Edition of 250
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.4 cm)
Signatures are double-stitched with linen thread and numbered on last page
(Inventory #33413)

Joseph Grigely’s “Blueberry Surprise” consists of one continuous line of text (45,000 words in 5,000 messages in three colors) transcribed from written conversations that the artist collected for over ten years. Anything that possibly made the messages recognizable (attribution, handwriting, etc.), disappeared when they were transcribed. The transcription, though, does have the punctuation, misspellings, etc. of the original written conversations. The font used is known as “The Mix,” an appropriate metaphor for the range of people whose voices comprise the piece. The different colors (red, orange and black) of the sentences denote the switching from one “voice” to another. The arrangement of the text on the page explores ideas of continuity and fragmentation, thus representing the very flow of almost any conversation.

Looking at the Latin etymology of the word “text,” one comes to the verb “texere” meaning “to weave” or “to braid”. With Grigely’s “Blueberry Surprise,” we have a powerful collection of intertwined fragments, quietly playing with composition, patterning, rhythm and more. Even with all the “weaving”, it is quite challenging, on account of the inconsistent punctuation, to read the entire text out loud from beginning to end. So… is “Blueberry Surprise” a one-page book, devoted to quiet reading or perhaps a visualization of what a conversation looks like? Joseph Grigely eliminates the initial function of a daily communication tool and creates something new with it, revealing possible engagements that are absurd, hilarious, moving and/or profound.

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DEU, Hambourg, 2016, Kunstverein Hamburg : exhibition of Joseph Grigely: “THE GREGORY BATTCOCK ARCHIVE”, Copyright photo: Fred Dott, 2016

Joseph Grigely
Artist, Writer
Born 1956, East Longmeadow, MA
Lives in Chicago, IL Joseph Grigely is an artist and writer whose work addresses questions about the materialization of language and communication, and the ways conversations might be represented in the absence of speech. A collector of inscribed words, documents, and related artifacts, Grigely’s ongoing work, collectively titled Conversations with the Hearing, is concerned with archives and archival practices and how archives might be activated with formal and narrative meaning.

Grigely has held solo exhibitions and projects at Nogueras Blanchard, Madrid, Spain (2018); Air de Paris, Paris, France (2017); and Marian Goodman Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2016). His work has been shown at the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, Ireland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and in the Berlin, Istanbul, Liverpool, Sydney, and Whitney biennials. His work can be found in the collections of Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands; Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium; Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Grigely has published several books, including Oceans of Love: The Uncontainable Gregory Battcock (Koenig, 2016), MacLean 705 (The Architectural Association/Bedford Press, 2015), Exhibition Prosthetics (Bedford Press and Sternberg Press, 2010), Blueberry Surprise (Editions Michele Didier, 2006), Conversation Pieces (Center for Contemporary Art and Korinsha Press, 1998), Textualterity: Art, Theory, and Textual Criticism (University of Michigan Press, 1995), as well as essays on disability theory and body criticism. Grigely is a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellow (2005), and holds a D.Phil. from Oxford University. He is Professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist Statement

Some years ago I was sitting in the New York apartment of a friend having tea and a conversation. A large part of our exchange had to do with the senses, and how communication involved a wide array of possibilities outside the norm of what it means to be human. Deep into the conversation, my friend told me a story about a blind baby who had learned to imitate—perfectly—the sound of a refrigerator and the sound of a car going over gravel as it approached the house. After a long pause in which we considered the implications of this, my friend turned to me and said: “Beauty is difficult. Never forget that.”

Related Information

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