The Poem Will Resemble You

Maus discusses the complexity of O’Grady’s work in the very beginning of the reading. Without having seen O’Grady perform, Maus deduced from documentation of her performances that “The continual internal refraction in O’Grady’s work forbid assimilation, yet the struggle to come to terms with the work’s implications—the inability to fix O’Grady’s art in a framework that is already known—strikes at the core of her major artistic contribution.” (page 185) Maus is speaking to the idea that not only is O’Grady’s work complex because of differences within it and it’s refusal to conform to artistic standards, but also because it initiated discourse surrounding art and art-making. Additionally, she challenged topics in the art world and initiated discussions of “conservatism and its presumptive avant-gardism.” (page 185) O’Grady appears to accomplish this throughout her works by creating works that are difficult to understand and examine, yet have clear messages that shed light on particular issues, some of which are controversial. I’m curious about how successful her poems are in producing this type of result. Maus doesn’t go into great detail examining each artwork so we are left with unanswered questions. It’s also difficult to understand reactions to the work since Maus admittedly never saw O’Grady perform. “Calling Halt to the Universe” for example criticizes contemporary art, yet without more discussion in the reading, it’s not completely understood. As readers, are we to simply interpret the works for ourselves based on the information Maus has given or did Maus perhaps feel that more discussion of the works was not necessary in understanding the overall theme of the article? Maus, perhaps, felt it was unnecessary to provide more discussion of the poems because other works, such as Nerfertiti/Devonia Evangeline required a more detailed description and analysis. O’Grady’s work is interesting in that it speaks to particular social issues, specifically involving the art world and it is not easily identifiable in a particular art category. However, Maus’ description and examination of the works left a lot of unanswered questions and made me curious as to why he chose to format his writing in such a way.