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    A Soviet Flyboy Pines for the Wilson Sisters
by Charlie Finch		  
     
 
Still from Jane and Louise Wilson's
Proton, Unity, Energy, Blizzard
a fourchannel video installation
at 303 Gallery
 
still from
Star City
 
Still from Star City
 
Two C prints
Changing Room, Hydrolaboratorium and Cosmonaut Suits, Mir
 
Jane and Louise Wilson
at 303
 
I'm an old astronaut,
Yuri, if you please,
dreaming in my Dacha
of Jane and Louise

The Moscow Space Center
was heaven for me --
all that's left is my spacesuit
for Jane and Louise

The place was top secret
on a cold Russian plain,
now a few buzzards cackle
for Louise and Jane

The boosters were powerful,
the throw weight insane,
now the hardware just rusts there
for Louise and Jane

I walked out of my space craft
high above the earth's seas,
now I'm shuffling through corridors
with Jane and Louise

The hammer and sickle,
red flags in the breeze,
now lie at the feet
of Jane and Louise

I wolf down a vodka,
I walk in the rain,
my shattered dreams pictured
by Louise and Jane

The borscht in my samovar
is flushed down the drain --
all I've got is this snapshot
of Louise and Jane

We rattle our tin cups:
"A few rubles, please"
from the Bohen Foundation
and Jane and Louise

Their art is a lovely,
intelligent tease.
I abandoned all glory
for Jane and Louise

Defenestrate patriot
tunes from the brain --
the true motherland
is Louise and Jane


CHARLIE FINCH is coauthor of Most Art Sucks: Five Years of Coagula (Smart Art Press).