Underlying Events, Terry Allen

Archive Label:
This group of objects comprises one part of an installation entitled Ring, constructed by Terry Allen over a four year period. The Ring series consists of two- and three-dimensional elements, videotape, and typewritten narratives that refer to the antagonistic relationship between two people, HE who is a writer and SHE who becomes a writer. The recurring theme is suggested by the title of the series: ring/wedding ring/wrestling ring/a story with no beginning or end/ring.
The psychological, sexual, and financial tensions, complicated by alcoholism and lies, which plague HE and SHE are summarized cryptically by the title of this piece, Underlying Events. Both the objects and the title may be read in any order. This work requires the viewer to squat, squint, and stoop to read and decipher meaning and to see objects that are not immediately visible (such as the bottle hidden behind the books).
Allen presents the home as an arena for physical, verbal, and mental combat between a man and a woman, where woman destroys man and man woman, but he also shows us the home as a place for the display of their mutual need. In Underlying Events, Allen does not condemn, but neither does he provide a resolution to the conflict.