“artists don't own the meaning of their works” -Roberta Smith
“you don’t have to understand the narrative, it’s the voice that is important” -Jerome Silbergeld
“How to Will You Marry Me” was made with delicacy and fineness, like a wedding dress, and the result reminded me of some kind of devotion and clarity one would/should have to ask another person to form a partnership for the rest of time. It also reminds me of Agnes Martin, not just superficially in structure, but in sensibility. And I like using the title “How to Would You Marry Me” because Agnes Martin would have been vehemently opposed to marriage, and to the tittle. So there is for me something subversive about the title, confronting Agnes Martin’s and the audence’s resistance to vulnerability and risk, and being cheesy about it. It is also a subversive way to set up the romantics for disappointment, or at least some exposition on the vulnerability and awkwardness of love.