Relation in movement 1977

Marina Abramović created this photograph as part of a durational performance. It's a document of an action. The circle is not quite complete, is it? There's a tension held in that near-miss, the gap where things didn't quite connect. And the grid—it’s so rigid compared to the wobble of the circle, which is messy and human, like a thumbprint. It’s a trace of a body moving, failing, trying again. You see the way the stone has been worn smooth over time? The circle is smudged, evidence of something rubbing against the stone, again and again. I always find myself focusing on the subtle imperfections, because that’s where the real story is. Like the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, Abramović is making a comment on the built environment, and how we choose to occupy it. It's about how we measure up against these imposed structures, the circles we make as we trace our own paths through the world.