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Born Trondheim, Norway, 1938
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Bjarne MelgaardThe Rectum is a Grave 1 (What We Do Is Secret 2) |
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slipping up, through, until your arm is nothing more than a phantom limb guided by remote, your eyes making up the distance between what's invisible and what you feel. The force with which you extend is obviously up to you, but you should probably be careful. Just keep it in mind, don't forget that this is someone's body you're dealing with. Remember that. Otherwise, you could really fuck somebody up. **************** Of course there are parts of yourself that you do your best to conceal, the parts of yourself that exist only because you know that you can never show them to anyone. Construct your exterior so that it's believable enough, so that no one knows what's happening inside of you until it's too late to back away. Bjarne Melgaard's work is like asking your lover what they're thinking and hearing them tell you that they're considering what it would mean to rape your grandmother while the neighbors watch. It's that moment of impact, the crisis when someone realizes, seconds too late, what's really going on. You can watch what Melgaard keeps secret, a splatter pattern of intimacy and hatred that enacts both surveillance and self-awareness in the voyeur, the anxiety of seeing yourself through someone else's fantasy somehow both disruptive and exhilarating. Melgaard is the reminder of the schism between what you want and what you are, an alarm that re-inscribes the secrets of your body onto the veil of memory. Alissa Bennett
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Allow me in introduce myself. I am Michael. I have a very vague concept of my relation to Bjarne and I am not sure why I write this. I am sorry for the last email you received because it was not from Bjarne but from David. Sometimes David just does this kind of dumb thing, he's good at cracking codes for email addresses and stuff. He's a bit hard to control, sorry about that. Don't think Bjarne would have written to you in that Grandma Cooper way about just finishing someone off. That is more David's thing. The whole post punk stuff, you know, thinking Gene Darby from the Germs is a saint when he was just a gay looser. Bjarne would more send you short lines, like 'Punk was just hippies with short hair'. Think Bjarne hates more than David. Don't assume that he wants to use so much time on anything- especially not words. We are now in Marsielles and Bjarne is doing some projects with Centre Pompidue and he's already driving them crazy from all the complications that surround him. Bjarne once worked with this female curator who seemed to get very uncomfortable around him. We saw her yesterday. I know Bjarne once was at her place, although I think Bjarne is more into women when they're unrelaxed. I know he has this thing about going to straight clubs and passing as a straight guy. Once I saw him kissing a girl in a club but I don't think she was really into it because she said later that she usually prefers a classier guy. Bjarne hates Dennis Cooper, J T Leroy and this 'I just want to kill my boyfriend but never quite get around to doing it' set. I mean, maybe a few less poetry readings and a bit more action would not be a bad thing. Bjarne hates this post punk 'wish we were still there' thing. Maybe also because when Bjarne was doing stupid stuff at 17 nobody was interested in his words. He never got a reply from anyone. Most people just found him weird. And Bjarne was never punk. Bjarne is not into killing your boyfriend or whatever. I think he is more into the abusing your girlfriend kind of thing. He calls me Alissa now. I know that David is not dead, but just skinny, walking around the house all the time because he took too many steroids, got a heart problem and then just flunked out. David's stays under the sofa in the living room and I know that for sure once when he tried to wrap his fat little fingers around Bjarne's leg, Bjarne kicked him in the face so he lost six teeth. David cried after and asked, 'Why did he have to hurt my snout', like he was some kind of reindeer or whatever. Usually he stays there under the sofa looking at Bjarne, watching him when he's fumbling around or watching TV. Bjarne hates teenagers too. Think he is more into bitter midlife 30ish crises. Bjarne hates doped out kids of any age, though he use to do a lot of stuff. Think he was very into injecting guys with steroids, 'The equality of the needle' he often talks about. A sentence Bjarne would send you could be, 'First we injected ourselves with steroids and then we went to Ibiza and tried to infect as many as possible'. Think it is a big turn on for him if his boyfriend says' fuck me like a woman' or calls his asshole his cunt. Personally I find it a bit old fashioned. He treats his boyfriends like shit. He treats everybody like shit. He also wants to send you some photos. One is where he is doing his 'I am kind of cute, but way past everything rock roll. Much more sociopath gone to the Foreign Legion'. Not bad but not great either. Another is of him in bed with a cast on his arm from when he broke his fingers in a fight. Another one is when he is just waking up, saying 'Hello.' Bjarne said he would like to send you some stuff. Maybe I personally would not recommend you giving out your address like that, but it is your choice. He wonders if he could send you some thing like a tee shirt he has been wearing because he said he likes to think that maybe you would like to smell them because they smell of him. I asked why would you bother smelling his stinky tees and he said you probably would not, but even if you don't like him he can still like you. Bjarne thinks in general there is too much respect for women and he can go on forever nagging about it how they just love it the harder you fuck them and the worse you treat them the more they like it etc. It drives me nuts sometimes. So vulgar. It is weird because sometimes women disappear around him. Not that he killed them or dumped them in a truck, but more like they mentally just are not there anymore. Like his sister. Do you think violence is easier for a woman if it comes form a gay man? Like Cooper, any post punk's best girlfriend. What if violence to women is directed by a gay man? It is different, probably a bit more arty, but stillÉ Can you get raped by a gay man Alissa? Should not gay men in general stay away from female genitalia??? At least not mutilate them? Could you see yourself mutilating your own female genitalia, so you end up with just one big wound between your ass and your cunt? Beyond systems. Could you Alissa? Bjarne hates more than me. He is more full of repressed hate. Not many have loved his hate, although he doesn't look hateful. Actually the oppositeÉDavid loved his hate and look what kind of existence he went to, from doormat to carpet under the sofa. And I don't really even know what happened with me. I know for sure Bjarne knew this guy who had raped a girl with a screwdriver. That's how it all started. When I met him the first time. Mutual friends I guess you could call it. A sentence Bjarne would send you could be 'I was always a recording artist, I just recorded all the tracks in my head'. Bjarne does not want any written words to be considered fiction because it is not intended for publishing anyway (and who cares ?) but know he likes words like 'unclear', 'depressive' and 'foggy.' Also I think he will send you whatever he is going to show at Anton Kern directly to you, so that you can open it in your home and place it as you like at the gallery. While you do it Bjarne would like you to keep a small object he will send you in your pocket. Would you mind? I once read a book called 'Bad Sex' that had different crappy stories in it and one was about a women who found out she had a demon for a boyfriend because his eyes glowed red in the dark when he was sitting by the bed looking at her. So unbelievably stupid but it kind of reminded me of something Bjarne once said about how my eyes glows a bit in the dark. But more purplish than red. I guess what I would just like to tell you is that I think instead of being every girl's gay friend Bjarne likes to be every girl's worst enemy. Thanks for your time Alissa. Michael |
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