Courtney from Ciaotime, in Balmain invited me to use the blackboard and chalk to do as I chose, at my leisure.
I did this drawing, which is neither a drawing nor a poem but brings a pleasure both those mediums offer.
Being that it is a menu board, nothing added to it in chalk or any other material will transform it. How is it then, that the black of the blackboard is suddenly so black like the night and the chalk on it like stars and moons? The signature takes ownership as if there is something at stake.
The words borrow from the menu’s purpose to question the patron’s desires. The menu normally serves to contract options more than broaden, to make ‘choice’ obsolete.
But this is Balmain where everything is interrogated. Balmain remains the seat of the revolution.
The words themselves are spread well. The letters are spaced and relaxed. They ‘breathe’ on the menu board like the choices inside, in the Bain Marie.
Photo: Courtney
Accidentally, without intending, the words are borrowed from Arlo Guthrie’s song where he he says, ‘You can have anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant’. This may be just a retro thing.
Under the microscope we can observe the tiniest detail but in the big picture life proceeds as per normal.