Outside the Park Avenue Armory
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
The first day of Barbara on the Upper East Side (UES): before leaving, I labeled the paintings and priced them. I carried the booklets and the LED lights, on my collapsible dolly, to the subway station on 110th and Lexington and rode it to 68th street. I went to the truck and unloaded the 4×4 and cedar block from the cab of the truck. Also, I went to find a drugstore where I might buy a receipt book. I found a store, across the street from Hunter, and it had it.
At that point I began to unload B. I was fearful of setting up outside the Armory. It took all of my courage. I went through the process of unloading and, by it, was not greatly relieved of my fear. I spoke to D. on the phone. It took a good deal of time to get B. off of the trailer because of all of the pedestrian traffic on the southwest corner of Park Avenue and 67th Street, where I’d parked the truck and trailer on the 4th. After taking B. off of the trailer, I pulled her up along side it. I wound the wench’s cord, lifted the trailer’s bed back to level and locked it into place. By that point, I had spent a good deal of time delaying by cleaning B with the Armor All towelettes that I had left over from the Lower East Side. While B and I were still on the trailer, in fact, Terry Halsey came by. I said to him that the piece was about isolation and that his very regular appearances were contrary to that. As I was responding to a question from the maintenance man at the apartment on the corner, Terry walked away to the passenger’s side of a Mini Cooper station wagon, waved and got in. The driver of the car waved, and they left.
Back, again, with B, next to the trailer and after making the trailer ship-shape, I was as afraid as ever: I could see across Park Avenue that there were men in security uniforms outside the Armory. I knew that the UES crowd would be a tougher one than that on the LES. Still, I was not prepared for the heightened state of my anxiety. At that moment, a man passed by and asked, “Is that a part of the Armory Show?” I answered, “No, it’s not a part of it. It’s going outside.” He said, “It should be a part of it. It’s beautiful. Well done.” With that encouragement, I pushed B. across Park and onto the sidewalk; rolling and securing her into place.
I took many photos and videos. I ate lunch inside. It began to feel similar to the LES and Chelsea experiences, in general. Toward the end of the day, a knowledgeable couple stopped as I was heading to the truck to change the GoPro batteries. I noticed them before crossing Park and left them alone. I crossed Park, looked back, and saw they were there, reading the booklet. I started to change the batteries, looked again, and they were still there. I dropped what I was doing and went back to greet them. I did not rush and when I arrived they were there, still.