74V45 Possibly 1973 - 1993

This photograph by John Divola presents a black triangle on a floor, held in place by a web of string. It's hard not to imagine the artist on the floor of that space, moving around this strange arrangement of objects. I love the tension between the solid blackness of the triangle and the fragile web of string, as if he's trying to trap some kind of nothingness. It's a quiet, intimate, almost furtive act. The string, so precisely placed, hints at a scientific kind of experiment, like he's measuring something immeasurable. I think about Robert Irwin’s installations with scrim, and other artists who try to articulate space and volume through almost invisible means. Artists are always in dialogue with one another, working through similar problems, and pushing the boundaries of what art can be. It makes you wonder what Divola was thinking when he was making this, and how this image fits into his ongoing investigation of space, light, and perception.