“For years now I have heard the word ‘wait’. It rings in the ear of every Negro with a
piercing familiarity. This ‘wait’ has almost always meant ‘never’.’’ – Martin Luther King
“Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Godot to
come.” – Samuel Beckett from Waiting for Godot.
Waiting implies anticipation. It is the state of existence in which we mark the passage of time
towards an end. Reaching the end is our hope. Waiting thereby indicates that something is not yet, is yet to come. Waiting is desire. It points at once to a lack and to that which will fulfill this lack. It is a desire to be fulfilled. But, because waiting is concern for what is not yet, there remains the possibility of disappointment. What we await may never arrive.
Disappointed waiting does not reveal that one was wrong to wait, because we cannot be wrong about what has not yet come to pass. Rather, our disappointment comes from the possibility that lived in our desire being snatched away from us by circumstance. Waiting ends in fulfillment, in the arrival of that which was anticipated. Even when we await a tragedy, there is a fulfillment of the desire that it come to pass, even if only so that it may pass, or else give us the catharsis of resolution or the end of our suffering. To wait is to desire even if it desires our own annihilation.
To represent waiting, then, is to make present that which is anticipated in its absence, the presence of which means the destruction of waiting, and so must be made present precisely through maintaining its absence.
Waiting... brings together works by Samantha Joy Groff, Moises Salazar, Kenny Schachter and Khari Turner, to create a visual dialogue about anticipation, desire, and hope for the fulfillment one’s desire.
Moises Salazar’s paintings and sculptures represent the hope and the desire for an end to suffering for the two disparate communities to which the artist belongs – poor immigrants and transgender youth. Using brightly colored paint, glitter, fabrics, ceramic, and papier mâché, they invite us to imagine a more playful world in which that pain and suffering is replaced with beauty, joy and acceptance, and in which the contributions of those communities are valued.
Samantha Joy Groff, who goes by the moniker “redneckhotwife”, is a former Mennonite, who left the fold to pursue a more fulfilling life as an artist. Her paintings and sculptures depict the boring, lonely existence of her former rural life, waiting for something better and constantly longing for a way out. She incorporates into her work imagery as well as actual textiles and other materials from the Mennonite community in Pennsylvania, ironically, in part to preserve the dying cultural traditions she left behind.
Khari Turner’s multimedia paintings on paper and canvas engage us in a search for connections between the past we have experienced and a future we hope and wait for. Figuratively, they feature glimpses of familiar black iconography with visual references to the wait for justice and an end to racism. Turner’s paintings are made using water from the coasts of Ghana and Senegal, the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and from Lake Michigan. Conceptually, incorporating these waters in his work, connects the geographic history of Turner’s ancestry and that of his own life to the most basic life-giving force that is part of every human’s biology. The hidden metaphor suggests
the desire for a future where equality exists.
Of the four artists in Waiting..., Kenny Schachter’s is the lone voice tackling waiting for its own sake. His sculptures, videos and prints consist mostly of random digital self-portraits, including a death mask, or images poking tongue in cheek fun at his friends and colleagues in the artworld. Seen collectively, they appear to pose questions like “am I there yet?” and “does it matter?” both in terms of the artist’s own career and of our overall significance in the universe. They present us with the absurdity of the passage of time and our desire to fill it in interesting ways, and to seek relief from suffering or grief, as we wait for death. His wait does not appear to be for the fulfilment of a grand desire, but rather for meaning and solace as he fills time, as we all wait for the proverbial “Godot” to arrive.
