At the gallery downtown the first paintings Arakawa made in New York (starting from about twenty years ago) are being shown. The diagrammatic nature of his work was what shocked some viewers and critics at the time. It is predicted that these painted formulations will still, fifteen to twenty years later, look extreme to most viewers. Some of the work included in the show had been rolled up and put away, never to be shown until now, because Arakawa, himself, was somewhat shocked by the severity, the implications.
The drawings which are being shown uptown are Arakawa's most recent work. They form in a way a bridge between the revised second edition of The Mechanism of Meaning (New York, Abrams, 1980) and the large-scale utopian construction which he and Madeline Gins are going to be building based largely on that book. In order to build this grand work, Arakawa suggests that it is necessary first to establish a time-space suitable for housing this. This he has named blank. Here are two of the paragraphs which he incorporated into his "Drawing of the Blank."
"Part of doing is always blank. Even those energies which
lead us move blankly. What are commonly called feeling
and thinking are such energies. As well as providing a
place for "forming blank," these configurations of energy
move through blank, sometimes to remain in it, completely
blank."
"As the coordination of the senses takes place within a
blank, whatever it is that orders this coordination
must also remain blank to us. Therefore, how can we
knowingly speak of the coordination of the senses except
in terms of blank.
DOWNTOWN
The public is invited to the opening on Wednesday, April 15th. The downtown gallery is located at 31-33 Mercer Street (between Grand and Canal). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 6 PM.
A reception for the artist will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 PM.
View Press Release
View Artist
