The Banquet, 1993

Toned silver gelatin print, 17.75 x 23 finished to 26 x 31 inches. Private collections.

The Banquet was created in response to opportunity lost. In 1993 the curator of prints and photography for the Seattle Art Museum
offered me an exhibition at that museum and selected one of my photographs to add to the museum collection. I considered the offer to
exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum a remarkable opportunity and I was eager to share the museum’s commitment with my friends and
colleagues. However, the art business can be a fickle one, subject to the whims and tastes of shifting personnel and authority. During the time that I was preparing for the museum exhibition, the curator that offered me the show left his position at SAM. His replacement reorganized the exhibition calendar and as a result, I was bumped from the schedule. To compound the disappointment, the photograph that had yet to be accessioned to the SAM collection was returned to me. I was left in the awkward position of recanting the story.

The Banquet shows the fool, in clown face, sitting on stage before an Edward Muybridge inspired graphic of a crow in flight. He is dining on crow and though it is clear from the many bones that surround him that he has already eaten quite a bit, there is still much to consume. The stage hook prepares to pull the chair out from under the fool, as his moment on stage is about to conclude.