The Art Gay Marries a Woman



The Art Gay Marries a Woman

An Offering from the Darbys

What just happened here?

This legally recognized marriage between an openly gay man and an openly straight woman points out the absurdity of existing marriage law in Texas and at the federal level of the U.S. government. But it’s also a hopelessly romantic occasion that represents a wedding of art and activism along with the idea, nurtured by countless people over many decades, that we are all artists with the ability to make art permeate every nook and cranny of our lives, even in the unlikeliest places. By bearing witness to this happy occasion, you are its co-creator. We hope you take some satisfaction in knowing it wouldn’t have been the same without you.

What prompted this?

Two years ago, a pair of heterosexual men known as The Art Guys staged a mock wedding in which they pretended to marry a live oak sapling in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston’s sculpture garden. The performance, The Art Guys Marry a Plant, was commissioned by the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and was falsely represented as a “behavior” piece that blurred the boundary between art and life. It did the opposite; the wedding had no legal standing and each of The Art Guys, both of whom are married to women, were able to continue enjoying all the rights, legal protections and responsibilities of marriage.

They didn’t even remain superficially committed to the tree, whose care they have outsourced to The Menil Collection, a Houston museum with world-renowned holdings of 20th-century art as well as Byzantine works and art by indigenous peoples. John and Dominique de Menil, who assembled most of this collection, were so committed to civil rights and human rights that they built the Rothko Chapel, a sanctuary for all faiths dedicated to human rights, and dedicated Broken Obelisk, an outdoor sculpture by Barnett Newman, to the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. Sadly, the Menil’s current stewards, who relentlessly trumpet its civil-rights legacy, have not only accepted the tree into the museum’s permanent collection but sited it within a stone’s throw of these important civil-rights icons.

Tonight’s performance is in anticipation of the tree-dedication ceremony at 10:30 a.m. Nov. 19. Reese Darby and Douglas Britt-Darby plan to attend as a legally married couple. Their presence as such will bear silent witness to a travesty of justice: the fact that their sham of a marriage will have more legal standing than, not only The Art Guys’ “marriage” to the tree, but marriages between Texas gay couples who have wedded in places where the government recognizes their union.

But it will also be a hopeful gesture. Because Menil curator Toby Kamps, who commissioned The Art Guys Marry a Plant when he was a curator at CAMH, said “the ensuing debate” would “shape the meaning” of the piece, perhaps our contribution will, in some small way, shape its meaning for the better and make the tree’s presence on the Menil campus less painful for the many couples, friends, allies and art lovers it has hurt. Perhaps our gesture can help make the tree, as Reese Darby has put it, “some sort of Houston shrine to gay rights.” (Hey, we said it was a romantic occasion!)

But why was the Darbys’ wedding so weird?

Partly because the Darbys are weird, and partly for commentary and other artistic purposes. The Art Guys were pretending to marry a tree while claiming, falsely, that it wasn’t a pretend wedding, they were obliged to make their ceremony as strait-laced and tedious as most conventional weddings. Since the Darbys really did get married, we had the luxury of inserting whatever funky twists on the traditional ceremony we wanted. So we exchanged Ring Pops and served beefcake instead of wedding cake.

But our vows and other gestures had a more serious purpose as well. Instead of throwing one bouquet that one lucky recipient could catch, we invited Dario Robleto, an important contemporary artist, to conceive a new artwork inspired by an artist who greatly inspired him, the late Felix Gonzalez-Torres (1957-1996). The image on the other side of this paper is of Victorian bridal flowers that Robleto made several years ago for the sculpture An Instinct Towards Life Only a Phantom Can Know (2007-2008). With Robleto’s approval, the Darbys folded this sheet into a paper airplane in a nod to an earlier work, I Miss Everyone Who Has Ever Gone Away (1997; recreated 2008), which consisted of wrappers from one of Gonzalez-Torres’ “candy spills” – endlessly replenished arrangements of candies that symbolized both for the process of dying – his longtime partner, Ross Laycock, died of AIDS, as eventually did Gonzalez-Torres – and life’s continuity. Robleto arranged wrappers from Gonzalez-Torres’ candy spills into origami airplanes and hung them in a mobile the year after Gonzales-Torres died.

The Darbys thank Robleto for allowing us to make airplanes using his beautiful image and invite you to keep this symbolic bouquet, regardless of whether or not you attach any superstitious value to catching it. Feel free to make and keep or give away as many copies as you wish. Because we want everyone who wants to get married – or to stay single – to be free to do so, our bouquet is your bouquet.

Where can I get more info and view documentation of this performance?

Visit thedarbys.. We’ll post links, videos and photographs related to this performance as well as copies of the vows and each side of this sheet. Print double-sided and fold to make your own paper airplane. We’ll also post copies of the marriage license and, when the time comes, the divorce certificate.

The Darbys

Reese Darby and Douglas Britt-Darby are the happy newlyweds, but we’re merely the flunkies and figureheads of this project. Most of the heavy lifting was done by generations of artists and activists whose ideas and inspiration we’ve shamelessly mind. There are too many to name – and too many whose names we don’t know – but a few Darbys whose immediate participation we’d like to single out here include:

Spiritual Darby: Christian Chiari, Doctor of Divinity, Doctor of Philosophy in Religion and Universal Philosopher of Absolute Reality, Universal Light Church

Darbys in Flight: Dario Robleto, Felix Gonzales-Torres (1957-1996)

Darby Diva: An’ Marie Gill Sexy Darbys: The dancers of Tony’s Corner Pocket

The Darbys That Got Away

Jen Graves, Mary Louise Schumacher, Paddy Johnson, Laura Lark, Gaile Robinso and Beth Secor

Sapphic Darby on Standby: Michelle Kweder

Darby Headquarters: Tony’s Corner Pocket

Darby at Law: Roland Darby

Watchful Darbys: Everyone who was here tonight or who views the documentation later

Reverse side image:

Dario Robleto

Some Longings Survive Death (for the Darbys), 2011

Image, text, paper airplane

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