What a minefield I got into when I naively started some searches on the web for “soap on a rope”, “meat on rope“ and “meat on a thread”. Who knew? I, of course, had been in search of a literal commonsense explanation for the utterly unexplainable.
A city’s street level detritus should be considered omens of the highest rank. These abandoned or lost trinkets, playing cards and small change can serve as valuable talismans (often in lieu of actual advice or time consuming therapy). What is left on the streets (if anything) tells a great deal about a city too. The ability to garner meaning from this flotsam and jetsam is just one of the urban gifts I have picked-up as a global city dweller. Some people look at clouds and see sheep and snails I find an Ace of Spades and a tie clip and expect to meet a powerful employed stranger.
Playing cards are everywhere. Loose change is everywhere (except maddeningly never where I am). If you want to win my heart take note of the man who once deeply impressed me by being able to guess all the face down cards on a city block, 6 in row! (I am that easy to read). But some street finds are unique like the pieces of sausage tied to red threads that appear to be singularly Viennese.
Lady Gaga famously wore a dress of meat designed by Franc Fernandez. My street meat necklace is more Henry Darger than Salvador Dali. This is ‘outsider’ street meat art. It’s original purpose a conundrum.
I curate a series of exhibitions entitled The Red Thread. Conceptually it is a transitory exhibition with a flexible format that draws a line (Red Thead) between artistic practices and a place. Thus far in its first 3 manifestations The Red Thread has tied together various links to Vienna. So could this meat on a red thread have something to do with my Red Thread?
This has happened before. It’s maddening to have another allegorical meat carrot dangling right before me…taunting me, but what does it mean?
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