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On the road of excess
And the ring-road of repetitious art
8 min readAug 23, 2023
(This piece originally appeared on my Substack, Artless. Subscribe to that here.)
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Last month I watched Philip Glass’s opera Akhnaten, in which the performers take even their steps tai chi-slow and make Kabuki grimaces for minutes on end. At some point (how refreshed those words) in one prolonged scene — as I recall a trio of gods(?) were glaciering downstage while jugglers in jumpsuits bounced eggs à la Sleeper or the Oompa Loompas during Mike Teevee’s demise — I got to thinking about the value of elongation, repetition, and excess.
