Transcript

You do it
You do it
You do you 

Own it
OWN it! 

You know you want it
There’s no “no” when you want it 

You know no-one wants what you want
You want what no-one wants
There’s no-one to want what you want
Want no-one 

So own it!
Own wanting it
You know you own it by wanting it
You know you want to want it 

You have to have what it takes to have it
You know it
No-one knows you have to have it
But you have to have what it takes 

It takes what you have
And yet you want it
You want to want it because that’s just what it takes 

That’s the way it goes
It goes that way 

You have to do it
You HAVE to
You have to have what it takes to do it
Fuck it, just DO it 

Fucking own it!
You know you want it
You want to want it
And that’s just what it takes to take what you have 

I don’t care
Fuck it if you can’t take it
You just can’t stand it
You can’t stand to fall for it 

I’m all over it
And you just can’t stand it
I’m all over the place
And you just can’t take it 

Fuck it—I’m over it
Fuck me!
You have to have what it takes 

Do you have what it takes?
I’m loving it
Do you even know what you want to want? 

Listen—I love it
There’s no “no” when you want it
No-one wants to want what you want
YOU want it 

You got this
You go and get it
You OWN it by wanting it
I want you to want it 

I love it
And no-one wants this more for you
It’s not a no-no
Fucking own it 

You know you have what it takes to have it
It’s not a no-no 

So own it
Own wanting it
Own the shit out of it
Babe, I’m all over it 

Come here and say that
Yeah, you heard me
Are you talking to ME? 

Babe, I’m all over that
Listen, there’s no “no” when you want it
You heard me
YOU want to want it 

You got this
Are you gonna go for it
You have to have it
I want you to have it 

It takes what you have
So you have to have what it takes 

Are you even listening to me?
You heard me
I want you to be heard 

Listen—I see you
… wanting what you don’t want
… owning what you can’t have
Fucking going for it 

I’m over it
—You do you  

Go get it
I see you
Fuck it, just do it 

“Do you even know what you want to want?”

Jacob takes us on a looping and circuitous path through self-care and empowerment rhetoric. “Own it!” “You know you want it.” “I’m over it—you do you.” With a text-to-speech device twisting these words to the point of their collapse, Jacob at once celebrates their capacity to inspire, and exposes their vacuity.

Based in Toronto, Luis Jacob is an artist whose work destabilizes conventions of viewing and invites collisions of meaning. Jacob has achieved an international reputation, with his work exhibited at the Museum der Moderne Salzburg (2019); Württembergischer Kunstverein Stuttgart (2019); the Toronto Biennial of Art (2019); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2018); Museion, Bolzano, Italy (2017); La Biennale de Montréal (2016); Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York (2015); Taipei Biennial 2012; Generali Foundation, Vienna (2011); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); Hamburg Kunstverein, the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery (both 2008); and Documenta12, Kassel (2007). In 2016 he curated the exhibition Form Follows Fiction: Art and Artists in Toronto at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, with a catalogue co-published with Black Dog Press in 2020.

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