Rope

"The Rope"

an installation by

Jack Stekelenburg

I remember a statement that Nikita Khrushchev said back in the midst of the Cold War. He said "We will hang you...and you will sell us the rope" This was all to do with capitalism and how the west will do anything for a profit. It got me thinking though, do we do that as artists as well? Do we create exactly what the buyer will buy, or do we create what we want to regardless of the possiblility of a sale. Do we sell out?

This inspired me to create the installation at John Patrick Mills Contemporary Art Gallery that you see hanging from the ceiling. Yards and yards of rope. This is a place where you can start thinking from. Let it be a reminder to you. Are you in it for yourself or for others. Patrick says, "Quit Your Job". Is that possible for you?

I'm including a whole raft of quotes that deal with rope. Each can be an inspiration to you.

Sex at age 90 is like trying to shoot pool with a rope.
George Burns

Support by United States rulers is rather in the nature of the support that the rope gives to a hanged man.
Nikita Khrushchev

The human race is intoxicated with narrow victories, for life is a string of them like pearls that hit the floor when the rope breaks, and roll away in perfection and anarchy.
Mark Helprin

There are slavish souls who carry their appreciation for favors done them so
far that they strangle themselves with the rope of gratitude.
Friedrich Nietzsche

We learn the rope of life by untying its knots.
Jean Toomer

Weave me a rope that will pull me through these impossible times.
Tim Finn

When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope we use.
Joseph Stalin

When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

When you're at the end of your rope, all you have to do is make one foot move out in front of the other. Just take the next step. That's all there is to it.
Samuel Fuller

Words today are like the shells and rope of seaweed which a child brings home glistening from the beach and which in an hour have lost their luster.
Cyril Connolly

You don't need a rope to pinch a stranger's butt.
Phil McGraw

You know, people think you have to be dumb to skip rope for 45 minutes. No, you have to be able to imagine something else. While you're skipping rope, you have to be able to see something else.
John Irving

A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.
Norman Cousins

A person needs a little madness, or else they never dare cut the rope and be free.
Nikos Kazantzakis

Chemists employed by the police can do remarkable things with blood. They can weave it into a rope to hang a man.
Margery Allingham

Experiments were not attempted at that time, we did not believe in the usefulness of the concept anyway, and I finished my thesis in 1962 with a feeling like an artist balancing on a high rope without any interested
spectators.
Richard Ernst

Give him enough rope and he will hang himself.
Charlotte Bronte

God can be realized through all paths. All religions are true. The important thing is to reach the roof. You can reach it by stone stairs or by wooden stairs or by bamboo steps or by a rope. You can also climb up by a bamboo pole.
Ramakrishna

His hands would plait the priest's guts, if he had no rope, to strangle kings.
Denis Diderot

I certainly do get at the end of my rope at times. We all do.
Joan Allen

I don't really believe in 'directions' in art; the rope twists as you follow it, that's all.
Graham Nelson

I mean, I grew up riding. I can't ever remember not being able to ride or rope and all that stuff. It was part of my life growing up, so it was fun for me.
Tim McGraw

I rope steers in team roping events. There's a header and a heeler on a roping team, and I'm the heeler.
Wilford Brimley

I think you have everyone kind of pulling on the same end of the rope. It's not like you're Robin Williams and everyone else is a deaf mute. It's like there's plenty of help.
Michael McKean

I'm still at the end of my rope because I find myself not handling things well when I travel.
Stephen Lewis

If I do hit that rope and do a hop, skip and a jump and get up as high as I can, I'm just going to hold my breath, because I know I'm going to hear all kinds of scar tissue popping.
Hulk Hogan

It was as helpful as throwing a drowning man both ends of the rope.
Arthur Baer

On one level the sixties revolt was an impressive illustration of Lenin's remark that the capitalist will sell you the rope to hang him with.
Ellen Willis

Owing to ignorance of the rope the rope appears to be a snake; owing to
ignorance of the Self the transient state arises of the individualized,
limited, phenomenal aspect of the Self.
Guru Nanak