54. 1957, Liverpool, England

The MiraculousNovember 2023Music

It’s the late 1950s at an art school in the north of England and a teacher in the metalwork department has just dragged one of his first-year students out of the classroom to berate him for his shameless lack of effort. One of the student’s friends who happens to witness this encounter notices how his pal, who is only 17, has plunged his hands into his pants pockets, very likely in order to prevent himself from punching the fulminating teacher in the nose. As if reading from a list, the teacher enumerates the many, many failings of this supremely lazy student, who is now slouching against the wall and gazing impassively at a window across the hallway. After several minutes of this, the student loses control and lunges at his teacher, shouting “If you have to know, I don’t really want to be an artist, or have anything to do with art!” Stepping back in disbelief at this outburst, the teacher counters, “Well, young man, what do you think you’ll end up doing instead?” Now looking the teacher in the eyes, the student replies with a tone of utter confidence, “I’m going to be a rock ‘n roll singer!”

(John Lennon, Jonathan Hague)

Raphael Rubinstein is the New York-based author of The Miraculous (Paper Monument, 2014) and A Geniza (Granary Books, 2015). Excerpts from his recently completed book Libraries of Sand about the Jewish-Egyptian writer Edmond Jabès have appeared in Bomb, The Fortnightly Review and 3:AM Magazine. In January 2023, Bloomsbury Academic will publish a collection of his writing titled Negative Work: The Turn to Provisionality in Contemporary Art. Since 2008 he has been Professor of Critical Studies at the University of Houston School of Art.