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| Dead Girls at Priceless Works Gallery by nicole grant, ragan peck, and vital 5 was a series of art installations portraying women who met untimely deaths through various forms of mayhem: shot prostitute in a dumpster, electrocuted electrician, two young suicides, lynching victim, botched abortion, and the Laura Palmeresque corpse wrapped in plastic you see here. I volunteered to keep guard over Sarah, who much to my discomfort was lying in a pool of blood on the terminated pregnancy operating table. My role was transformed from bodyguard to that of distraught boy- friend--which wasn't much of a reach 'cause it made me unhappy to see her playing dead in a puddle of gore. My post was conveniently adjacent to the back of the bar, and just before she went into her 2-hour motionless pose I said, The day you die is when I become a drunk. You're already a drunk, she replied, closing her eyes. Maybe she was right. After one beer, I switched to red wine. I was the only living character and many found my grief to be more disturbing than the inert bodies. After it was over, vodka was passed around and soon thereafter I blacked out. I regained my senses on Matt Ford's couch. How'd I get here? I asked, then began banging on the piano. It sounded good to me but I was alone in that opinion. The next day, squinting through a hangover, I asked if at least I'd been charming. Sarah informed me I'd been loud and dropped a beer bottle in the street. Well, at least she was alive to tell me. |
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