Shusaku Arakawa
The Mechanism of Meaning(No.2) 9. Reversibility
- Artist
-
Shusaku Arakawa
- Date
-
c.1963-1988
- Medium
-
Oil on canvas
- Dimentions
-
244.0×173.0cm
- Accesion Number
-
AS-005-38~45
-
© 2016 Reversible Destiny Foundation. Reproduced with permission of the Reversible Destiny Foundation
Reversibility is an exploration of thinking beyond fixed sequences and oppositions by exchanging positions, time, and meaning. Here, contrasting concepts such as “remembering” and “forgetting,” or “past” and “future,” are placed on the same plane, inviting us to question causality and the very flow of time.
A reversed calendar and forms that appear to be turned upside down suggest that the order of time and space is not absolute, but open to alternative perspectives. Questions such as “Can you remember what you have forgotten?” or “Will you have existed in the future?” challenge the assumption that memory and existence unfold in a simple linear progression from past to future.
Although our individual lives are finite, the world and time continue beyond them. This exercise encourages us to reconsider time not as a one-way flow, but as something in which past and future may coexist, prompting a more flexible understanding of memory, existence, and our perception of time.
Shusaku Arakawa
- Artist
-
Shusaku Arakawa
- Date
-
c.1963-1988
- Medium
-
Oil on canvas
- Dimentions
-
244.0×173.0cm
- Accesion Number
-
AS-005-38~45
-
© 2016 Reversible Destiny Foundation. Reproduced with permission of the Reversible Destiny Foundation