92. ON KAWARA: A SPACE BETWEEN SENDING AND RECEIVING.

On Kawara: Date Paintings, David Zwirner - LONDON.

On Kawara, JUNE 8, 1966, 1966 from "Today," 1966-2013  
"Hurricane Alma has mounted to 100-mile-an-hour peak winds and is moving toward Cuba." Acrylic on canvas 6 x 34 inches (66 x 86.4 cm). Signed and dated verso Accompanied with artist-made box. Image courtesy of David Zwirner.

‘In a certain sense the phrase "I am still alive" can never be sent as it cannot be received by the addressee instantaneously...It is only valid at the very instant that it is being written, and in the very next second it no longer is a certainty. If the addressee receives the telegram a few hours or days later and reads it, he merely knows that the sender was alive at the very instant the telegram was sent. But when he is reading the telegram, he is totally uncertain if the content of the text is still relevant or if it is still valid The difference, the small displacement between sending and receiving, is that particular unseizable glimpse of the presence of the artist. Likewise, it is a sentence of self-reassurance..."I am still alive." The activity of telling oneself and the world "I am still alive."

O.K. 1970.

On Kawara: Date Paintings. David Zwirner 24 Grafton Street, London. Until January 25, 2025.

Special Thanks: Sara Chan.