2lbs/100 days
Gormley Gallery, Notre Dame University of Maryland
2lbs/100 Days looks back on the one hundred days of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily press briefings during the early stages of the pandemic.
Butter is an unstable material that changes by the hour, by the minute. Cold corners easily break under the pressure of a butter paddle, but the heat of my fingertips immediately soften its rigid edges. It’s unctuous, delicate, satiating; but also slippery, fickle and prone to landslides. When left on a warm countertop, its sweetness slowly sours and eventually turns rancid.
The history of butter sculpting in the US, pioneered by a woman who enjoyed the illusion that she was a simple farmer’s wife --Caroline Shawk Brooks-- is one entwined with power and commercial interests. And yet butter eliminates pretension, emphasizes craft and makes people smile. It tastes good, it smells good, it feels good. It’s the perfect material for sculpting powerful people with delicate egos and questionably good intentions.
Like many of us, I turned on the news every day between March and June and braced myself for the body count. I found comfort in Cuomo’s assertive, fatherly presence. He provided me with stability, told me what I needed to hear, and encouraged me to be hopeful when national guidance was completely deficient. But the truth is, Cuomo was incredibly slow to respond. By March 20th there were already hundreds of new cases per day and deaths were accumulating quickly. In June, after aiding in passing a police reform bill, he denied his constituents compassion by telling Black Lives Matter protestors, “You don’t need to protest, you won.” Many months later, and nobody has won.
Was I eager to accept inadequacy at the time because there were more egregious vacuums in leadership?
How will history remember this moment and its leaders?
Is this the best we have?