The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande
A pilgrimage, September 17, 1987 to April 17, 1993
In my early days, I'd send two slides to inquiring curators, the couch in the river and the illuminated corn, (not the greatest pictures!) along with the following statement. "I don't document my work because anyone behind the camera's eye would defeat the purpose of my work, which is ritual. I therefore leave documentation to chance." I would also say, "I want to live simply and chemical-free," and end with, "I am aware that I may not get an NEA, (for which the applications are expected to be top quality,) but that was OK, that actually I had ended up receiving several unsolicited grants!
(Early ''bold' days, but my truth was the most important!)
In 1917 Marcel Duchamp exhibited a urinal and called it art, although at the time there wasn't any concept yet in place to explain such an act of transgression. Today Mazeaud's project is equally startling because it isn't based on a transgression of the aesthetic codes at all. It comes from another integrating myth entirely: Compassion. Carlos Castaneda calls it the " path with heart.
—Suzi Gablik, The Reenchantment of Art (1991)
