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NESSA-SARY FICTIONS
'Spare New Works From The Nessa
School," The Grit, Through May 31
“Fever, confusion, convulsions...” Nessa
School founder and CEO Matthew Lusk is
reading aloud from a list he has acquired of
symptoms that may indicate that a person
has recently suffered a concussion. The two
of us have met. at his request, ostensibly to
talk over details involving the avant-artist
group's newest show. “Spare.” But now Mr.
Lusk appears unwilling — unable, really —
to discuss anything not pertaining to mas
sive head trauma.
“You have to understand." he whispers.
“Most of the time I don’t feel well."
And so the mystery deepens regarding
the Nessa School, a loosely knit group of cre
ative conspirators who have for the past sev
eral years cruelly bedeviled Athens with
their unique synthesis of Duchamp-inspired
modernism and the more refined instincts of
the criminally insane
While any Nessa School exhibition must
be treated with dire significance by the com
munity. this newest
presentation takes
on a special import
as it will likely be the
organization's last
here in town. Come
summer's end many
key members will be
off to graduate
school. A look at this
ro! *er of achieve
ments is undeniably
impressive.
Special Lieutenant Nat Harris, having
been denied a visa to travel abroad, will
undertake the MFA painting program at Pratt
College in Brooklyn. Meanwhile. Trevor
Smith (aka “the Ferryman") has opted for
the University of California at Berkeley,
where be Lopes to divest himself of a long
standing concern that other Nessa School
members are "doing things to me." Margaret
Maurice, evidently against her will, has been
enrolled in the New York Academy of Art in
Tribeca. And Mr l.usk himself has chosen to
attend the prestigious Art Institute of
Chicago, a campus he says he gravitated
towards because, "I didn’t see any wolves."
Does this tidal wave of change thus indi
cate the end of the Nessa School as we know
it. or does it instead portend a massive (and
troubling) insurgence of the group’s program
into our nation's most prominent cultural
capitals? Mr. Lusk is evasive regarding the
matter, but when pressed will admit to “cer
tain objectives which remain as yet unac
complished.”
These goals will have to be achieved in
spite of rumors of rampant dissension and
insurrection within the group's ranks. In
February, insider’s whisper. Mr. Lusk was
nearly deposed as ruler following an inci
dent in which two once-trusted associates
(“Thatch" Horton and D.G. Hill) had him
drycleaned non-stop for two weeks at a laun
dromat in Comer. While Mr. Lusk claims not
to have been affected by this occurrence,
those close to him point out that ever since
that time he has taken to socializing exclu
sively with a life-sized cardboard cut out of
Joe Pesci.
Perhaps some useful insight into the
group’s future can be gleaned from their new
exhibition. "Spare". A highly classified docu
ment. composed months ago by the Nessa
School High Command and obtained by me
through sources, describes the original
intent of the exhibition as “a crude effort to
examine the many
and diverse facets of
a simple world
through the medium
of photography."
From these ambi
tious beginnings
comes the work now
on display at The
Grit. a baffling
melange of
Epicurean impulses
which include some
pictures, a T-shirt,
and a smattering of creative cut-and-paste
collage items apparently conceived hastily
at the local Kmko's
Mr. Lusk himself acknowledges having
become increasingly disillusioned with this
latest enterprise, beginning last month when
initial plans to hold an opening at the
“Hairpor!" on Broad Street were rendered
impossible by arcane zoning laws
“I hate my life." he declares, and then
handing me a large bottle of Turning Leaf
burgundy, requests that 1 christen him
before he sa*ls from shore
“What shall I call you?" I ask. raising the
bottle high above his head, preparing to
gong him.
“I don’t know.” he responds pensively,
“call me the S.S. Red Herring — no wait, my
name is The Great Pretender." ©
'Details of an evening in N.Y.C." by David Harnson Horton
Book Report
By Judy Long
• And the winner ol the 1998 Townsend Prize For
Fiction is Judson Mitcham tor his ncvel. The Sweet
Everlasting (UGA Press and Avon Books)
The prize, given in memory of Jim Townsend a
mentor to manv Georgia authors, was awarded on May 6 at
the Fox Theatre in Atlanta Local authors also m the run
ning were Beverly Connor for Questionable Remains.
Terry Kay for The Runaway, and Philip Lee Williams
for The True and Authentic History of Jenny Dorset In his
acceptance speech Mitcham acknowledged two other wr.t-
ers who had been important to mm tne iate Raymond
Andrews whose works included Appaiachee Reoana T*e
Last RaOio Baby and the iate Adrienne Bond author o'
Time Was She Declares Selected Poems Mitcham, also
the author cf tne poetry volume Somewhere m
Ecclesiastes, walked away from the ceremony with many
kudos and a nandsome engraved silver plate
That plate made autnor Rick Bragg, who delivered
the Townsend add f ess. somewhat envious B f agg asked if
anyone in the audience was connected with the Georgia
Author of the Year Award, which was given out in March
in Macon Bragg won the group's nonfiction award but
was unable to attend because he was away on a story for
The New York Times Bragg said, *l want my damn bowl
I couldn't help it that I was sent out of town I want my
bowl No. I should say my mama wants my damn bowl."
• Sally Fitzgerald, author of Letters of Flannery
O'Connor The Habit of Being, recently visited in Athens
Fitzgerald, currently working on a biography ol O'Connor,
made the trek out to Crawfo'd to visit with Marion & Dot
Montgomery One of the letters collected :n The Habit of
Being was written in 1961 by O'Connor to Marion
Montgomery In the letter she wrote. T think your boo*
' The Wandering of Desire] is wonderful. 100 percent
set a and anve througnout Tne Southern writer can out-
wnte anybody in the country because he has the Bible
ano a little history, bur you ve got more cf both than most
and a splendid gift besides ” Fitzgerald, now oacx in
Cambridge Mass. gives no due date for this long await
ed biography because she wants it to be as complete as
possible
Wf i >Ni sday May 70
Brad Frost
r HUN .DAY MAY .’ 1
Dimi s i out
I RlDAY May 22
5 I I AM D< )NKI YS
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Lf I S FAlll I
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Witt Ri hbi rc ,
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TUESDAY, May 7.6
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