Keith Haring Journals (26 page)

The press attendance was almost nonexistent. Maybe one or two photographers. Hospital employees had repainted the graffiti before M or Mme Balzac arrived. This repainting would have made great press (for me and the med students) and a great photo. Kwong Chi was feeling ill and didn’t make it to the reception, either. So the only photos of this are my Polaroids.

The Minister of Health showed up and was very nice. But the whole thing was very official and very boring except for the fact that all of these med student protesters sort of took over the reception and used it as their own forum. George Condo came and convinced me to leave, and I did.

So Juan, George and I went to George’s house, watched
The Shining
(my favorite horror movie) on video and then did coke and painted. Joe Glasco came and also painted. So George, Joe, Roberto and I were all painting at the same time in the same room. Weird, but interesting. I made three small paintings.

2:00 AM: Return to hotel.

12:30: Leave hotel for airport.

2:30: JAL flight to Tokyo via London and Anchorage. Both times we had to get off the plane. Boring. There was a disgusting man sitting across from us who kept making obnoxious spitting, hocking noises and swallowing his slime for the entire 18-hour flight to Tokyo.

I finished reading Orton diaries and read James Baldwin’s
Giovanni’s Room
. I have to read more James Baldwin because I’m supposed to meet him to do a project with him in the south of France in a couple of weeks.

11:30 AM: Meeting with Parco judges about the judging procedure for Nippon Object Competition and discussion of designs (drawings) for street signs for Parco and contract writing.

Then we go shopping in Shibuya. Sign autographs in store and start a chain reaction. Finally leave store because we’re causing too much congestion.

4:00: Meeting with art critic about judging competition, etc.

6:00: Go to Shinjuku to see neon signs and play Pachinko. Tokyo is truly amazing. It’s like one big amusement park. Video screens everywhere and neon like you cannot imagine. Juan has never seen anything like this before and is bugging out. Packed with people. We eat in a very funky Taiwanese restaurant under a bridge. “Very
Bladerunner
.” I sign chop-sticks for everyone at table.

9:00: Juan and I take a taxi to meet Tina Chow at her hotel and then go to her friend’s house for a macrobiotic dinner. Her mother and sister Bonnie are there. Also a director, a Japanese TV star, a designer and a few interesting people. I can’t remember all these Japanese names. I can’t remember names, period. I have a feeling the reason we are eating macrobiotic is that our host looks like he has AIDS. I know that look well, unfortunately. Really great dinner, nice house, nice people. Tina’s mother is really cool and really beautiful.

Take train to Tama City to see new Cultural Center (incredible building) and meet with city officials of Tama City. Discuss the project I will do in September or October with children in Tama City. Creating two murals that will be donated to the city and placed in children’s hospital, sport center, library, etc., and also the project of helping children create paintings on little clay bells that will be put on a wooden “tree” designed by me for a kind of “peace ceremony.” All details of money, etc., will be worked out by Seiko [Uyeda]. Had to remove shoes to enter this huge municipal building since it will not be opened until October 30 and they don’t want to dirty its “virgin” floors. I could imagine if they continue this when the building is public, the thousands of pairs of shoes lined up outside. They said, though, that after Oct. 30 people can walk in with shoes.

1:00 PM: Return to Aoyama to meet Kaz Kuzui and to meet other man who is giving us space for Pop Shop. Great space and great idea. In Tokyo real estate is so expensive that to rent a space is almost impossible. When companies buy a piece of land to build on it takes two-three years to get the necessary permits, etc. So since this space is unused the people sometimes use it temporarily and pay a rent to the big company that owns the land. So Pop Shop will go up in a temporary building on a temporary location for a temporary time. Perfect. The whole concept is perfectly in keeping with my aesthetic.

Twelve-hour flight to Paris. Watch
Jumping Jack Flash
with Whoopi Goldberg. Take Valiums and sleep. They also showed
Crocodile Dundee
. Both movies have my T-shirts in them.

Stewardess recognizes me and asks for autographs on plates.

Arrive in Paris 5:30 PM Paris time.

Call Julia and Tony.

Pierre Keller calls, wants to come to Paris to discuss some project.

Go to dinner with Juan and run into curator from Beaubourg and talk about show. Lucio Amelio is staying in the hotel with Joseph Beuys’s wife, Eva, and her two kids. They are installing a piece at Beaubourg.

10:00 AM: To Beaubourg to arrange painting. Quick meeting with person about the plastic bags I designed for the show. I agree to take 500 bags as my payment, since they will not be selling them.

Buy paint, brushes and plastic containers, which total $1,000. Paint in Paris is ridiculous!

2:00: Return to museum to hang the canvas tarp. After giving up on the museum crew, I hang it myself.

Meet Eva Beuys and Lucio.

Back to hotel and then walk to George’s house to meet them and go to Claude Picasso’s house for his birthday. Adolfo calls with phone number of Run DMC/Beastie Boys manager to arrange tickets for Tuesday.

8:30: Another call from Switzerland about cigarette-pack design. I say no for last time.

9:15: Meet Pierre Keller in the hotel and go to Beaubourg together. Sit in café and discuss project for Lucky Strike posters. I tell him my price. He gives me the other photo he took of me and Andy in my studio when we did the Montreux poster. Also has a transparency of the sculpture Jean Tinguely made for me for our trade. It’s incredible.

10:00: Arrange paints, plastic, ladder, etc., and begin to paint around 11:00 A.M. A lot of people all day long. Immediately the ladies working in the concession around the corner from my painting complain about the music. I explain I have permission and have no intention of lowering it (it wasn’t loud) or, as she suggested, “playing something French.” All day long different people came to complain and then other people would explain to them that it was O.K. At one point this “very French
lady
” tried to explain to me that I was giving her a headache. I suggested aspirin or take the day off because if I couldn’t play the music I wasn’t going to paint. The more they complained, the more obnoxious music I played until finally I played the Beastie Boys and they brought the head of security with two guards. We had a confrontation and naturally I won, since my painting was ultimately more important than a few distraught employees’ bullshit complaints.

The Japan Air Lines stewardesses showed up and were surprised (an understatement) to see me. Lots and lots of gorgeous boys. Autographs all day long and giving out buttons. Finish painting around 7:30 and do a video interview and more photos. More autographs. Clean up and take paint (still have 80% of the paint I bought) to hotel and call Leor about Beastie Boys tickets. He’s here with E.K.

Dinner with Pierre and Juan and then coffee with Lucio and François Boisrond. Go to Attention (gay disco) with Juan and meet this boy (Paolo) who looks really tough till he opens his mouth. He takes us to Kit Kat (downstairs at the Palace). I see Peter Kea, Jean-Claude (who says Boy George is in Paris) and this guy who I met with Lucio, a black opera singer. He’s incredible and it’s his birthday. I see an amazing fake shirt and sign a few shirts on hot boys. Then this big black guy comes over and kisses Juan on the ear and says, “Later.” So I kept picking on Juan, saying, “Why don’t you leave with him?” So, he starts to leave and I follow him and we have an argument and leave the club. Consequently, the guy we came with and were presumably leaving with was not amused and went home. We made up eventually and went home and made love furiously.

Call from Nellens. They’re coming to Beaubourg opening. Call from Swiss magazine about the body paint job. Call from Vienna asking me to come there to be in this movie.

2:00 PM: Meeting with guys from Belgian TV about the show I’ll be on in June. Long talk about a lot of things. A lot about Andy—I really miss him sometimes. We’re supposed to go see Boy George with Jean-Claude. But I find out Jean is going to interview him and I don’t want to go for that. I tell them to call late if they want, but they don’t.

Then I find a phone number in my pocket—Paul. I think this is the guy we met last night, so I call to invite him to the hotel. He sounds different on the phone, but he says he just woke up and assures me he is Paul and was at Kit Kat last night with us. So at 4:00 there is a knock at the door and it is the black soprano who [it] turns out is also named Paul, and had given me his number last night to give to Lucio.

Very funny. We all go to Le Palace for tea dance. We see the other Paul and it doesn’t look interesting anymore. Cute boys, but boring.

We go to dinner at Condo’s house and watch
The Shining
again. That’s the third time I’ve watched it with George.

Pierre called to confirm Lucky Strike poster job. Meet Leor and E.K. at their hotel and go to lunch near Beaubourg. Rain. Rain. Leor gave me an All Access badge for the concert tomorrow, but I have to get the rest from him later.

Check in at Beaubourg to finish details. Call Hans Mayer in Düsseldorf to see when we return to work on sculpture. At Beaubourg we ran into this cute kid I drew on at the Palace the other night who was with Jean-Claude. He meets us at our hotel and in the meantime Frederick Dayan and Jean-Claude call to invite us to go see Rita Mitsouko at La Cigale. The kid leaves his scooter at the hotel and we all go to see Rita Mitsoutko. Good show, very French! All go to the Palace and drink and dance until 3:00 AM. Kid comes to hotel to get his bike, but says he has to sleep at home. Very French!

10:00 AM: Meet Nellens and Monique Perlstein at hotel to go to opening. Buy fake Free South Africa shirt near Beaubourg. Show is strange. I see Jenny Holzer and talk and see Daniel Buren and talk. That was the most interesting thing at the show. I think I like Daniel Buren’s work more all the time. Each new variation gives a kind of credibility to the validity of the investigation. Very clear, very clean, no lies. Most of show is full of a lot of lies. Pretentious lies. If this is a true survey (and it’s not) of the last 10 years, it’s pretty depressing! I’m glad my piece is downstairs and outside of the exhibition. The catalogue is huge and weighs a ton, but it is all in French, so I don’t know if my representation in it is good or bad. Pop Shop is included in the historical chronology, though, which seems good. Finally things begin to be taken seriously, which is the first step toward being understood.

We go to lunch with Nellens and Monique Perlstein. Monique has the card from my show of drawings in Antwerp and it is beautiful. Nellens are jealous. I hope this Knokke show is not going to be a disaster. We talk
again
about T-shirts, etc.

Return to hotel and call Tony. John Carmen calls Tony, so we have a conference call and then John gets Grace on the phone so we have a four-way conference! Happy Birthday Grace. Maybe she’s still coming to Belgium.

6:00 PM: To Beaubourg to meet George and Mabe. I run into Louis Jammes and he suggests we do another portrait. George, Mabe, Juan and I walk to the Grand Rex for Beastie Boys and Run DMC. Get our tickets at the door and get seats inside. I go backstage to look for E.K., who is nowhere to be found. Talk to DMC and Beasties. Cold at first, but eventually people are cooler. Thought I heard someone referring to me as Keith Gay. It’s O.K. with me since it didn’t sound like an insult, actually. Everyone signs my jacket. Talk about New York and Tokyo, etc.