Umwelt 2011

“Umwelt” by Pierre Huyghe, that’s a word, right? It looks like a blank canvas, but then you see the marks, small dark spots that form a vertical line. I wonder what Huyghe was thinking when he made this. Was it about the minimal? I mean, it looks like he's trying to do the least he can to make a mark. You can see the effort of someone being so restrained, it makes you want to push against it, add something more. It's like a conversation between the artist, the canvas, and you. And isn't that what art is all about? This back and forth, this give and take. It’s something all artists do, whether they know it or not. We're always talking to each other across time and space.