Only Idiots Smile

Gregg Bordowitz

2017 | 00:22:00 | United States | English | Color | Stereo | 16:9 | HD video

Collection: Single Titles

Tags: AIDS/HIV, Activism, Jewish, LGBTQ, Politics

"Gregg Bordowitz’s 2017 performance lecture Only Idiots Smile features the artist on a stool in the New Museum’s top-floor sky room, riffing on the formation of his identity. At one point, he explains his 'Jewish identity is the template thru which I understand all my other identities… how to appear to others, how we’d like to seem to others,' how others might frame themselves to be seen by us. In this way, Bordowitz gestures at what seems to be the most legible piece of this exhibition, templates for framing — each artist explores variations on the frame through presentation, history, fantasy, sculptural construction, and material."

— Rindon Johnson, Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, Brooklyn Rail, 2017

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Exhibitions + Festivals

Trigger: Gender as a Tool and a Weapon, New Museum, NY, 2017

Gregg Bordowitz: I Wanna Be Well, Cooley Gallery at Reed College, OR, 2018

Gregg Bordowitz: I Wanna Be Well, Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 2019