by Sid Miller
“The Spectator is Compelled…”, 1966-1968
–after the painting and photo-emulsion by John Baldessari
The ordinary man wears dark slacks, a white dress shirt and his hair in an ordinary short fashion. The spectator is compelled to look directly down the road and into the middle of the picture. The spectator and the ordinary man are one. The road that he stands on too is ordinary. The shutter closing is the only movement here–no sparrows take flight, no housecats stretch on white windowsills and not even one poodle pants behind chain link. There are power lines and telephone poles and clean sidewalks sandwiched by lawn. At the end of the block the street T’s and beyond are hills with still more houses. Perhaps there, amongst the tall palm trees not native to this land, extraordinary occurrences take place by men who wear exotic fabrics and mustaches waxed on the ends, as they lean on white limousines surrounded by air, lilac and cumin. But that is our indulgence. The ordinary man isn’t concerned with such nonsense. Our man is busy with desperation. His world is near collapse from far too much symmetry. The ordinary man looks with us, compelled by a different reason. The ordinary man is groggy. He needs to travel. He needs to wander even just around him, find the fertile soil that still surrounds this place, where the avocados and citrus grow. Find the few remaining mountain lions amongst the rocky hills and let out even just a plaintive roar.