Somewhere in the annals of the Art as Authority archives, I remember having written that surrealist moments occur on a regular basis in our daily lives and go for the most part unnoticed, if you're not on the lookout for them. It's not so much that they happen, it is more important to recognize them when they do. This is part of the fun and the surprise. Case in point: the form letter from the Yellow Pages that I received the other day in the mail asking me to list my company name in their yellow book.

Now, I'm probably the only one that will think this is one of those surrealist moments and likely the only one to make the connection, but I have faith in you the reader and hope you'll at least humor me in your reactions. Le casse pipe in French, literally means the broken pipe. It also means in slang, someone who is a daredevil or who takes risks. Usually daredevils, stuntmen and like end up, sooner or later, breaking something in their bodies or getting seriously hurt - thus body becomes pipe or a broken body. Pipe can also refer to someone's face, typically in derogatory terms. But the French language being what it is, it's quite normal that a or le casse pipe in question, can have yet another symbolic meaning, that of the infantryman on the front lines during World War I - always charging and fighting against impossible odds.

I chose Le Casse Pipe Productions for the name of a future art publishing endeavor I would like to undertake and have organized several exhibitions under that pseudonym already. The notion of taking risks and "charging ahead" into the art world against impossible odds appeals to me greatly. So, back to the yellow book, after having registered a domain under the same name I started to receive all sorts of solicitations from credit cards to personalized letter head. (I have the feeling this isn't going to be as exciting as I'm building it up to be) but the Yellow Pages offered to take the trouble out of deciding where to list my business for me and promptly listed Le Casse Pipe Productions under the appropriate rubrique. And voila! when their work was done, and if you click on the image for a larger view, you'll see that they chose well and put the business under the heading "Fabricated Pipe & Fittings." Perhaps this is indeed a fitting end to a fabricated but true surrealist moment that likely says more about art in a non-art environment and the imagination required by both sides of this spectrum to make it work or to be understood as either an artistic intent or just another pipe.
Ceci n'est pas une pipe.