Roman Opalka French artist, with Polish origins, set out in 1965 to count from one to infinity. Starting in the top left-hand corner of the canvas and finishing in the bottom right-hand corner, the tiny numbers are painted in horizontal rows. Each new canvas, which the artist calls a 'detail', takes up counting where the last left off. Over the years there have been some changes to the ritual. In Opalka's first details he painted white numbers onto a black background. In 1968 Opalka introduced a tape recorder, speaking each number into the microphone as he paints it, and he also began photographing himself standing before the canvas after each day's work, a ritual bookkeeping of time passing. The process is endless, but measured against its goal, infinity.
5 comments:
this makes me think of the scholars that use math to interpret the Torah. Numbers are in everything from the way acorns fall from a tree to the math we do when we catch a glass that is about to fall off the table. numbers cannot be denied in all we do but I had friends that would do the same thing in grade school to see who could get to 1 million first and so forth. I think the imagination suffers from work like this and obsession takes over. The artist should enjoy so aspect of the work once it becomes a chore or a job the life goes out of the ideas.
Dan Kuhn,
I don't see that Numbers plays any role in here exept medium.Progressive counting filling up physical existence until the death. I think Numbers - are not the main focus here, it was just a way to show passing TIME. not more, not less.
I think that this image is incredibly boring. It's counting, no matter how we want to intellectualize it.
It should be noted that the Opalka regards this work as a ritual-like process. This goes beyond obsession, it connotates a transformative, even spiritual, event is taking place.
If you look beyond the numbers, there is an interesting pattern of color and form evoking the idea of an abstracted black and white photograph. I think this is an interesting way of documenting something as ephemeral as the passing of time.
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