[no title] 1995

Curator: Immediately, I feel a sense of incompleteness—a sketch of a fleeting idea. Editor: Here we have an untitled piece by Per Kirkeby, part of the Tate Collections, an etching dating from 1995 measuring 198 by 136 mm. Curator: The lines feel almost archaeological, mapping a forgotten landscape of the mind. Is it excavation, or something emerging? Editor: Well, the medium itself, etching, is a process of controlled removal. Acid bites into the metal plate, leaving behind these delicate lines. It's subtractive, deliberate. Curator: Perhaps that's the point. What's left unsaid often speaks volumes. The composition seems to evoke a yearning for something just beyond reach, a fractured memory. Editor: I see the materiality as integral. The thinness of the lines, the slight imperfections of the plate—they highlight the labor, the hand of the artist and the mechanical reproduction. Curator: Ultimately, this work invites us to contemplate the ephemeral nature of existence and the enduring power of suggestion. Editor: Yes, and how that suggestion is born from a very material process. Thanks for your insights!