In art, meth lab imagery tends to engage the DIY spirit of the outlaws. In an art context, before they are outlaws, they are makers. Claiming them is radical, but possibly no more radical than artists’ interest (now fading) in Project Runway. From high fashion to low crimes, enterprises that require the skill of the hand attract artists, even those whose practice calls for them to delegate fabrication to others.
As installations, meth labs fascinate, which can’t be said of PR. The problem with the current season is not the move to LA, although it didn’t help. It’s not the sporadic appearance of the New York judges, who are disinclined to make the trip. That didn’t help either. And it’s not the goofy challenges. There have always been goofy challenges.
It’s the poor quality of the contestants. Where did PR get these people? Of the final three, only Carol Hannah Whitfield has possibilities, and they dim compared to finalists in previous years. As for Irina Shabayeva, she projects shallow luxury, while Althea Harper projects not much of anything.
Meth labs, however, always have possibilities, being made and wrecked at the same time.
Meth kills, but so does moralism. Think of where we might be if the U.S. government had paid Afghan farmers for their poppy crops instead of burning their fields. Once in control of the product, we could have used it for medical pain relief in the Third World, where surgeries without anesthetics are too common. For a fraction of the cost of killing them, we could have helped the poorest of the poor raise their standard of living.
And if, in the U.S., drug abuse were a medical and not a criminal problem, those who construct the labs would be reduced to making something else. Art, for instance.
Jonah Freeman, Justin Lowe and Alexandre Singh
Hello Meth Lab in the Sun #1, 2008
custom pigment print
Eli Hansen, I’m not paranoid because I’m high, 2009
Davis Langlois Meth Lab, 2003, oil/canvas
Regina. Remember that post you wrote about museums, “I’m Glad I’m Not In Charge”? With posts like this one, I’m really glad you’re not in charge too. You want to legalize meth? What are you on?
Alfrred. I didn’t say I wanted to legalize meth. I noted that ingesting other poisons is a medical problem, but once the specter of street drug traffic raises its head, war not treatment is the solution. What’s the sense in that?