25 random things about thaniel

1. even though i grew up disabled and around the disabled...i personally cant stand most disabled people.

2. my most fulfilling non-sexual emotional relationships with people of the opposite sex have been with married women, and lesbians.

3. ive only had one one night stand

4. i cant stand most men below the age of 27..even when i was below the age of 27. i still couldn't stand most of them.

5. i secretly want to move to either san fran, philly, or chicago, and think i would be happier far away from everyone i know.

6. i personally don't think im a very good artist, and im always surprised when people like what i make or say. ive always made art because if i didn't make art...id explode.

7. im a very bad speller.

8. i hate the word experimental, and every time an artist uses that word to describe the stuff they make...its always boring as all out.

9. my biggest fear in life is that i will die without ever getting married.

10. even though i consider myself to be an agnostic. i cannot stand it when people make fun of christians/religious people.

11. ive always wanted to make a pop band.

12. i didnt lose my virginity til i was 27

13. my other big fear is that i might have a mental illness that will cause me to have an irreversible nervous break down.

14. i hate most artist i know

15. im afraid of small dogs

16. even though i consider myself straight, and dont find men sexually attractive . i have found myself emotionally attracted to at least 3 men in my life.

17. ive always wanted to be a landscape painter.

18. i hate computers.

19. i can in some way or form remember every conversation i have ever had.

20. i love liver and onions, and would have it once a week if i could.

21. for some odd reason i never became emotionally attached to my grand parents , and i dont know why.

22. i want to go to poland.

23. my favorite song is tiny dancer by elton john

24. i recently forgot the sound of my fathers voice, and that scares me.

25. i have religiously worked on art for at least one hour a day since i was 20 years old, but very little of it i consider viewable/listenable.

two ideas

work 001] endurance work for dancing

in this work ill explorre not only my own body, but other people
expectations of what a body like mine can and cannot do. between two
set times for around 3 or so hours i will dance almost nonstop. the
music will mostly be 80s and 90s dance music, i will be dressed in a
suit, and the dance floor will be constructed out of a large rug. the
work will be documented and then projected in the room that the work
was performed in.


work 002] all your questions will be answered version two

in this work i will be doing a live version of a web work that i did
that involved me answering any question no matter how personal or
mundane that people had either about being disabled or about anything
at all. the live version of this work will involve me sitting behind a
desk in a mostly empty room every work day of the week for 15 business
days. again i will be in a suit, ill be sitting behind a standard
desk, and the questions and answers will be documented and placed
either on the wall/s of the room or archived in a data bases that will
be available to the public.

june update

its been awhile sense the last monthly update, so this one will be a
tad longer than the ussual one.

1] i recently change the front of my web page, and i changed the index
to a different type of index. so if it doesnt work for your browser
please tell me asap. so far it works fine on safari, and firefox, but
im not sure how it looks on netscape or opera.

2] im currently type setting a chap book of myinstructional based
works. the booklet will have works 1 - 20 in it and be in an edition
of 75. each copy will be hand/mouth signed and numbered. im currently
taking pre-orders so if you would like on please get in touch. the
pre-order cost is 10 dollars ppd, and all pre-orders will come with a
random sketch/photograph.

3] it looks like i will be doing a split show next year. it will be in
the spring, and the other artist is on this list.  [the split has become a group]

4] im turning 32 on june 13th of this year, and i will hopefully be
have my yearly get together a a not yet disclosed place in
kentuckiana. if you would like an invite please get in touch.

-thaniel ion lee

artistic suicide

i think im going to stop making objects for awhile and focus on purely conceptual, and computer based works. it isn't that i feel that the creation of objet d'art and other things that can be easily sold is holding me down or going out of style i just feel that i should focus on something that i can do without help, or financial and/or spacial constraints. this direction might be artistic suicide on my part because the last time i checked my area of the world is not a hot bed of conceptual art, and i am pretty sure that it will make it even harder for me to get into group shows and collections, but i must do what i feel is best for my current situation.

love

this might be a tad too much TMI, but i haven't been in a intimate relationship with a woman in over two years, and its really starting to affect my self-esteem. i don't think its the lack of sex thats getting to me... i think its the sensation that i might never feel the touch of a woman again, and that maybe im set up to be be alone.

id would like to get married before im 35.[ ill be 32 in june]., but as i get older it seams like that dream/goal is getting more and more impossible, and i hate to use that word, but lets say i met a woman tomorrow...we would have to fall in love, get to know each other, live together for at least 1 year, and then get married in under 3 years..

Hermaphrodites In Wheelchairs

Have you ever noticed that the same universal symbol for accessibility is on both the male and female bathrooms and that this icon is used to represent both sexes of people with disabilities? This hermaphroditic symbol is usually placed standing near the universality accepted icons for male or female, and no matter who or what it stands near is always depicted the same way. although we are aware that this stand in for a person with a physical complication represents that the bathroom or changing room may or may not be accessible sometimes I wonder if our subconscious views it differently and that it may actually represent the view point of our society the persons with different physical needs are entities that are neither male nor female.

In my opinions this icon is no longer necessary in indoor contexts. The Americans with disabilities act of 1990 made it so that most public buildings must either be built to certain standards or they should be upgraded to the standards set by the act, and that the fact that this hermaphroditic icon is used at all in my opinion shows that we as a culture are not taking the issues surrounding the disabled rights movement seriously. For example in my life I have noticed that most rooms that they put this symbol near or on are barely usable buy persons like my self and that this icon is purely used as a way to show that the area in question has an area dedicated for wheelchair users. The doors of theses rooms are usually no more or less usable than most doors in the building, and that in most cases the dedicated stall in the bathroom is the only stall in the room and this in turn makes the fact that they feel the need to show that the room has an accessible toilet or sink unnecessary, and redundant.

I would like to propose that we as a culture rid our selves of this icon, that we start taking the Americans with disabilities act seriously and start actually making buildings accessible, because no amount of symbolism will make a structure wheelchair friendly, and if an entry point or part of a construction is usable by everyone that this fact will be obvious by the users of the building.

In conclusion I would like to state that unless a room or door is to be used only by hermaphrodites in wheelchairs that the universal accessibility icon should never be used in any in door context, that we as a society start taking our anti-discrimination laws seriously, and that we should encourage both architects and the people that commission both governmental and corporate buildings to design buildings that have no need for these useless icon.

- thaniel ion lee