Dimensions: image: 575 x 823 mm support: 610 x 860 mm
Copyright: © The estate of Justin Knowles/DKRT Investments Corp. | CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Curator: WD.137ii.98/01 by Justin Knowles presents a series of black rectangles on a grid. Editor: It’s like a minimalist bar graph charting the growth of... introversion? It's got a quiet, almost hesitant energy. Curator: Knowles, active from the mid-20th century, engaged with systems-based art. This echoes the seriality found in conceptual practices of the time. Editor: It’s strangely calming though, this little sequence. Like a visual mantra. The grid almost feels like a playground for these shapes. Curator: The use of a pre-existing grid is interesting, it references bureaucratic systems and the way we categorize and measure the world. Editor: Maybe Knowles is asking us to find beauty in the structured, the measured... or maybe he's just playing with shapes. I like the ambiguity. Curator: Indeed. The interplay between order and subtle variation allows for multiple readings within the framework of systems aesthetics. Editor: Makes you think about the beauty of data, the poetry of organization... who knew rectangles could be so philosophical?