[on postmortem communication]
"I often find that people who claim to be able to speak to my friends and family postmortem should really improve their communicative skills with me before I die."
- Zachar Laskewicz
4 February 2012 (Ghent).
[on awkward parenting]
"Some people complain about awkward parents who attempt to provide their lives with meaning purely through their children. Mine, however, are welcome to this quest because - who knows - if they're successful at finding some meaning there maybe they'll fill me in on what continues to completely elude me."
- Zachar Laskewicz
15 January 2012 (Ghent).
[on being the butt of all jokes]
"Obscene book title of the day: 'Why I Went Ass over Tit' by Guy Huntingbum."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 5 November 2011, (Ghent)
[on bullies]
"It's a truly sobering moment when you realise that the peers who made your life so unbearable and continue to influence the way you see yourself, were not only uninfluenced by your suffering, but have, in fact, forgotten you entirely."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 4 August 2011, (Ghent)
[on the magic lense of understanding]
"I am as frenetically creative as I am vulnerable if only because I reveal myself so personally through my art. In retrospect, I've always applied my creativity to sculpt a sort of lense through which I can gaze at the world in an attempt to understand it better. The bitter pill of experience has taught me that this sword cuts on both edges; although on the one hand I long for people to return my gaze, I always fear that the focus-providing glass on my side will not produce the desired effect in reverse. All the same, I've realised that those who find what they see unusual would probably understand me better if they realised they were looking in the wrong end of a telescope!"
- Laskewicz, 4 August 2011 (Ghent)
[on life passing you by]
"You know your best years have passed you by when you realise the major thing you achieved in the last 12 months was getting a year older. . ."
- Laskewicz, 29 July 2011, Ghent.
[or alternatively]
"Why would I need to move in with someone to found a relationship based on lies when I'm perfectly good at self-deception without anyone else's interference..."
- Laskewicz, 28 July 2011 Ghent
[a variation on my attitude to another relationship]
"Why would I consider a new relationship? I really don't need to live with someone who'd make my life a misery. I'm perfectly capable of fucking up my own life."
- Laskewicz, 28/7/2011 Ghent
[the shorter arrow]
"T'is love's prick to ease requited ill, yet still an arrow can point (and not kill)."
- Laskewicz, 27 July 2011 Ghent (Belgium)
[on the prospect of another relationship]
"Why would I want to live with someone who'd fuck me around and make my life a misery? I'm perfectly good at doing that on my own."
- Laskewicz, 26 July 2011 (Ghent)
[on the arrow and the index]
"An arrow, used for love's lament,
redeems an unrequieted ill;
Yet it can be a useful tool
when used to point
and not to kill . . ."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 22 July 2011 (Ghent)
[on nostalgia and other dangerous lies]
"Of the forms of human fiction, perhaps nostalgia is the most dangerous of all because there are many people who believe that the comforting lies it tells are really true. . ."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 20 May 2011 (Ghent)
[on purchasing angry gym equipment]
"Of course you shouldn't waste sixty dollars on a Cross-Trainer no matter how nice the merchandise may look on the webpage. Stick to friendly ones but be warned: the trainer I bought got more than just cross after I told him my intentions. He punched me and left forthwith. Now that was an awkward blunder!"
- Zachar Laskewicz, 6 April 2011 (Ghent)
[on the ultimate purpose of self-deification]
"You'll find that erecting temples for the purpose of self-deification while you're younger is not an entirely wasted endeavour; at least then on reaching old age you'll have something that will stay erect!"
- Zachar Laskewicz, 1 April 2011 (Ghent)
[on the semiotics of Laskewicz: the ultimate reflexive sign]
"Confronted with my artworks overflowing with semiotic content I've come to accept that the tendency to categorise it with a single set of meanings is a convenient and understandable way to make sense of my art. I feel, however, that the dynamic process between an individual and his or her world in its creation is sometimes lost or even forgotten. With the advantages of interactive multimedia technology and the internet, I hope that I'll be able to help people understand how ideas are stimulated into core concepts which become the inspirational source for many different kinds of artistic 'product''. In this introduction, I'd like to point out the fact that this 'bracketting off' (or framing) of artistic experience and the very way we classify and make sense of it has become the primary palette I use; language and music are the instigating metaphors but also their primary form of expression. The necessity I feel to direct the audience's attention to the absurdity of a frame is something I share with an accomplished comedian. It is true that when I point at the frames of my art I do so with a smile; but if it may at times seem wryly ironic or downright funny, the absurdity hides always the ultimate fear facing every individual; that when the show is over, when the music stops or when I become lost for words, it is a very frightened silence that remains. It's a primal fear we all share and that I've called Stage-Fright.* To conclude, I've come to realise that when my work does succeed in communicating more than frustration; when it makes you question something or it makes you feel an emotion (such as joy or dread), it does so in spite of and not because of its deliberate semiotic self-insulation. Achieving this is for me the ultimate sense of personal success as a creative artist."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 27 March 2010 (Ghent)
[on maternal ties]
"Did you have one of those mothers who you're embarrassed to bring your friends home to because you were worried that she may try to chat them up or belittle you? In this regard, I was lucky. I didn't have any friends..."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 10 March 2010 (Ghent)
[on primordial relationships]
"The most important relationship men develop outside the womb is the relationship they have with their language."
- Zachar Laskewicz, 24 February 2010 (Ghent)
[on my tombstone]
"Of Zachàr, what more can be said?
There was just one,
and now he's dead . . . "
- Laskewicz, 23 January, Ghent.
[on paternal ties]
"My father taught me two things. The first one was the single windsor. The second the double windsor. Although this may seem little, it's a practical application I use almost every day."
- Laskewicz, 20 January 2010, Ghent.
[on caring about what people think]
"Being young and naive, we aspire to please others by finding out a lot about many things and mastering contrasting crafts. In becoming older and more cynical we realise that the doors are opened for people specialised in a single field. The path is only complete, however, after we've become old and wise, and realise that we shouldn't really care about what people think."
- Laskewicz, 17 January 2008 (Ghent) [last updated 3 March 2010[
[on losing loved ones and a sense of perspective]
"Having to cope with close family and friends dieing has proved bearable although I've observed the following : as the circle of friends diminishes with whom you share some kind of history, the less you'll be able to double-check on how things happened. An isolated person who only has his or her own memories to make sense of the past is doomed to warp it out of all proportion. I dedicate this with love to my dear brother with whom I’ll no longer be able to share anything with. . ."
- Laskewicz November 16 2009, Ghent [Belgium]
[on caring about what people think]
"Being young and naive, one aspires to please others by finding out a lot about many things and mastering contrasting crafts. In becoming older and cynical one realises that people don't care much for those who know a lot about many things or those who have mastered only one craft. The path is only complete, however, after one has become old and wise, realising that they shouldn't really care about what people think."
- Laskewicz, 17 January 2008 (Ghent)
[on creativity]
"Creativity is a joyous activity ; it gives me pleasure and provides me with satisfaction . The creative products, whichever form they may take, are a bonus. I used to be confused about the importance that others appreciate my creations , but I now know that although appreciation and criticism are very important aspects of the creative process, particularly in our society, and are personally wrapped up with complex issues such as self-image and low self-esteem, I know that while I’m creating something a transcendent process of sorts is taking place – I know the work will provide me with an increase in sensual and factual knowledge. ..."
- Laskewicz, 27 December 2008 (Ghent)
[on appreciation]
"In the end, if you can laugh at your own jokes then at least you can't complain about nobody finding you amusing..."
- Laskewicz, 11 May 2008 (Ghent)
[on the unholy alchemy of history]
“There is a monster lurking in everyone's dim shadows… When it speaks to you – don't listen to it, whatever you do! It is lieing. The deceptive thing about this monster is that the further away you get from it, the more dangerous it becomes; every step further you take, its voice doesn't seem to dim but ever louder become its cries! This evil monster's name is the Past and History is the unholy alchemy of its resurrection…”
- Laskewicz, 9 March 2008 (Ghent)
[on reality and/or existence]
"Is it an objective lesson in coherence or an incoherent object lesson? "
- Laskewicz, 4 March 2008 (Ghent)
[still more on sperm]
"I've taken too many chances in a given day for to fish in; thus I've never needed nocturnal emission... "
- Laskewicz, 2 February 2008 (Ghent)
[on this spinning cycle]
"Rhythmically the shifting cycle vibrated forth mechanically; set in motion, he could not stop it and he felt like he wasn't in control. It was a truly awful feeling, and although it wasn't as if any of the totally complacent looking people around him were speaking to or (worse still) touching him, still if he closed he eyes he could feel the vibrations jar him to his very bones. Even worse were the noises it was making; it was klanking away atonally in a key which entirely displeased him. Everyone else stuck in the small room seemed entirely nonchalent as to the primal drama that was taking place right in front of his eyes. And on top of all that it kept getting faster and faster. 'Will this awful spinning never end?' is the thought that kept recurring - he felt truly glad that his experience of music was not like this as the spin cycle came to a sudden but violent close and he considered moving his ragged (but at last clean) clothing to the dryer..."
- Laskewicz, 3 January 2008 (Ghent)
[more on sperm]
"From any erection lacking protection
Positive sperm swimming in the wrong canal
(but the right direction)
You won't conceive;
Instead we'll speak
of deconception..."
- Laskewicz 1 January 2008 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on insanity and indifference]
"A far worse danger than your insanity or our willingness to suffer your delusions, my friend, is the magnitude of the indifferent complicity towards the psychotic lunacy of our co-existence..."
- Laskewicz, 22 December 2007 (Ghent)
[updated riddle for Christmas 2007]
Q: What
is transmitted during sexual intercourse, can cause enormous suffering and despite
the continuous and expensive research attempting to find a cure to it, will
end up killing you?
A: Life, of course!
- Laskewicz, 20 December 2007 (Ghent)
[on logic]
"There
is no doubt, my friend, that zero is a number - nothing, therefore, must be
a type of something. Following this logic, then, nowhere must be a place and
nonsense a type of sense that makes arbitrary any given reason, n'est-ce pas?"
- Laskewicz 19 December 2007 (Ghent)
[on ageing]
“In an Age of Irony, the Irony of Age: the realisation that the longing for rest during youth was just a practice for the inability to act as we age.”
- Laskewicz, 1 November 2007 (Ghent)
[on unprotected sex]
"Sperm up the wrong canal in the right direction could lead to HIV infection!"
- Laskewicz, 1 July 2007 (Ghent)
[on being kinky]
"If repression is the source of all fetishes, then surely clothing is sin qua non the most ancient source of such sexual variation in existence, seeing that it was the first thing that seperated us from animals and helped, therefore, to turn sex into far more than just a reproductive act. In wearing clothes (apart from the obvious function of keeping ourselves warm) we are also telling the world that there is something 'not' to see too, and our clothing tells a great deal about the sort of things we're hiding."
- Laskewicz, 10 October 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[another uncomfortable metaphor]
"The puppet springs on its strings so highly strung, it's tangled tied; trapped thus it cries, sighs then dies..."
- Laskewicz, 8 October 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[a penetrating thought]
"Brave
knight,
Fear not
My idle bidding;
Come ride
Your steed
On a path
Well-ridden,
You'll find
A dark Tunnel
That may be
Well-hidden -
But you'll
Discover there
My secrets
Forbidden."
- Laskewicz, 7 October 2006
[on deception]
"Why are we all so trapped within
Those wicked fictions that we spin?"
- Laskewicz, 1 October 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on convincing other's of the truth of your own deception]
"At
first I thought that pigs might fly
Before you'd eat of my sky's pie;
But when pigs flew
I saw you with them
Flying...
Then I saw the reason why
You must've known of my pie's lie;
I saw you'd seen it
As it soared
The sky in."
- Laskewicz, 15 September 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on life]
"Life IS a sexually-transmitted disease, although unlike most STDs,
at least you know you'll end up dying from Life."
- Laskewicz, 1 September 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on the eternal question of the chicken or the egg]
"Neither the
Chicken nor the Egg came first;
in fact they both didn't come -
It was only the Cock who ended up having any fun!"
- Laskewicz, 22 June 2006
(Sint-Niklaas)
[a word-play on nothing & anything]
"So, then, is it really true- Laskewicz, 21 June 2006
[on silence]
“Silence is not my friend; he’s my enemy. I fill my environment with sound to keep him away. I despise him so because I know that when he finally appears at my doorstep, I sure won’t be hearing anything else but the deafening sound of his absence.”
- Laskewicz, 1 June 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on arrogance and vulnerability]
"You shouldn't even stand on a tower you've built from mud and
dry sticks, let alone preach from it!"
- Laskewicz, 23 April 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on the nature of existence]
"Life is a is a ridiculous cabaret really; it's embarrassing if
you forget the words of your song while you're singing and you can't stop the
performance while it's happening, but at least you can try to have a good time
during the show."
- Laskewicz, 2 April 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on eccentricity]
"If you are eccentric on purpose you're the eternal comic and people generally laugh with you, whereas if you're eccentric by chance you're the eternal fool and they often laugh at you. If, however, no matter how hard you try, you can't help being eccentric, then they tend to ignore, miscomprehend and sometimes even despise you..."
- Laskewicz [an unwilling eccentric], 1 April 2006 (Sint-Niklaas)
[on gender]
"There should actually be 3 facilities available for public use ; one for
ladies, one for gentlemen and finally one for those who aren't quite sure..."
- Laskewicz, 1 January 2006
[on communication and the performance text]
"The sign
is brought to life by human performance: we weave it so intricately into our
understanding of experience that we can sometimes only feel its presence. Through
my work as composer and also as theoretician I am attempting to get closer to
that elusive 'sign' by exploring its application in cultural systems. I want
to demonstrate that we dynamically create and recreate the reality around us
by performing it, and that this 'performance' should become a given application
in contemporary theory."
- Laskewicz, 1 March 1998 (Brussels)
