Cheap Imitation 1971

Here, we have John Cage’s ‘Cheap Imitation’, a score that looks like it's been wrestled into existence with just a pen and a whole lotta patience. I can imagine Cage hunched over this page, a mad scientist of sound, coaxing notes onto the page, each one a little rebellion against the tyranny of harmony. The squiggles and clusters of marks, they're not just notes; they're like tiny universes colliding. I wonder if Cage ever felt like he was just chasing ghosts, trying to capture something that was always just out of reach. There's a vulnerability here, a sense of searching. You know, it reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later work, where he turned his back on the cool abstraction of his peers and embraced figuration, in a very loose and intuitive manner. In the end, all of us artists are just cheap imitators, cribbing from each other, remixing the past, and hoping to stumble upon something that feels true, even for a fleeting moment.