The artist Charles Ray walks to Burger King every day
Welcome to the latest issue of Subtle Maneuvers. Previously: Do I just need to relax??
Charles Ray (b. 1953)
After two-plus years of barely leaving my neighborhood in LA, I’ve just had two weeks of really getting away, with a trip to New York City and the Spanish island of Mallorca. (I’m writing this on the plane home.) Leaving the house: Recommended! I saw so much, and I feel like my brain has been jolted out of a longstanding stupor that I hadn’t even realized had taken hold.
One unexpected highlight was the 2022 Whitney Biennial, in New York—unexpected because I usually find these kinds of mega surveys totally overwhelming and run out of concentration energy after seeing about one-tenth of the works on display. But this time, for whatever reason, the moment I stepped away from one thing I got sucked into the next, and thereby rolled along on an ever-cresting wave of enthusiasm.
It was raining outside, so I nearly skipped a trio of Charles Ray sculptures on the museum’s terrace. Trying to decide whether to venture out, I read the wall text by the door, and was delighted to find the following glimpse of the LA–based artist’s daily routine: