Minimalissimo

Equivalent VIII

art & illustration

Stay up to date

The Minimalissimo newsletter is sponsored by aprile, the hanging chair.
It's also supported by Antonio Carusone and 29 others.
If you enjoy what we’re doing, consider joining this group.

Speaking of the notion of 'suchness' in his book Zen and the Brian, James H. Austin notes:

In Japanese, the word 'sono-mama' had long implied that something could stand as it is, untouched. In Chinese, the expressions 'Chi-mo' or 'Shi-mo' were used to mean 'just so', or 'so it is.'

I open with this quote to introduce Carl Andre's sculpture of 1966, Equivalent VIII, which consists of of 120 fire bricks arranged as a rectangular prism on the floor of the gallery space.

I would like to suggest—for I haven't encountered it myself—a Zen Buddhist reading of Andre's work, which would frame it as a presentation of things as they are, untouched. In David Batchelor's book on Minimal Art, André is quoted as saying this about his work:

The one thing I learned in my work is that to make the work I wanted to you couldn't impose properties on materials, you have to reveal the properties of the material.

And elsewhere, speaking of his sculpture: Their subject is matter.

These quotes encapsulate for me what is offered by Andre's work: the opportunity to encounter this sculpture as just bricks. Let it be so.

In the shop