"Home Remedies 2" IcyHot, BioFreeze, TheraFlu Natural Apple Cinnamon Flavor, varnish, and clear gesso on canvas. 16 x 13 inches

How are you feeling? I’m feeling delicate and a little hot, but I think I’m just worn down from a Bacchanalian month. Anyway, tomorrow night I’m going to see Mark Benson speak at the closing of his show “Get the Flu” at Ever Gold Gallery—maybe, if I’m actually sick, I’ll get to be Ever Gold’s Typhoid Mary.

Mark Benson’s “Get the Flu” is a vestibule of air conditioners and a gallery of glowing heaters. I think all of the cooling and heating options of Costco are represented. The installation also features paintings in ointments on canvas hung in the hot room; they reek of camphor and artificial fruits, have saturated the canvas with an oily slick that drips onto the floor, and are just wonderful. The show’s highlight happened on opening night, when Benson arranged for willing participants to receive flu shots from a registered nurse and a certificate of authenticity. The piece is a framework to think about the selfishness, short sightedness, and consequences of receiving a first-world luxury like a flu shot. The flu shots will also stay in the recipient’s body forever, which, for the eight people who received a shot, is a pretty long performance piece to commit to.

 
The closing reception for “Get the Flu” begins at 6pm, and the artist Mark Benson will speak at 7:30. If you are one of the people who received a flu shot, please, please, please come. I want to hear about your temporarily fastidious health.

Mark Benson‘s “Get the Flu” will hold a closing reception at Ever Gold Gallery from 6pm- 9pm on Thursday, September 27. Benson will speak at 7:30pm.

The writer in bed. Or Mary Mallon from her Wiki entry.

-Kendall George