Pigeon Holes 1997

Roxy Paine’s "Pigeon Holes" is like a taxonomy of gestures, each daub and smear a world unto itself. I imagine Paine in the studio, maybe frustrated or just curious, asking, ‘What can paint do?’ Each stroke is isolated, framed, categorized. But the creamy, off-white paint has a mind of its own, thick in some places, dragged thin in others. It's like a conversation between control and accident. The texture is key—you can almost feel the drag of the brush, the give of the surface. Look at that one, the long smear on the left, it's practically a landscape in miniature. Paine’s a bit of a mad scientist of materials. He's always pushing things, and this piece, well, it makes me think about what painting *is*. It reminds me that we are all in conversation with each other and the material. Each gesture is a question, an answer, and a beginning all at once.