Ladies and Gents, Mr. On Kawara

On Wednesday I visited On Kawara's latest exhibition of his work One Million Years at David Zwirner. Inspired by Jerry Saltz's "minutes" from his visit to the collection, I jotted down my thoughts during my visit. The idea was that they would be helpful for the review that I am currently trying to write for a class. They are not proving to be such...so I thought I would share here instead! Huzzah!

- Nine hundred thirty seven thousand three hundred forty two BC (937, 342)
- The years are descending.
- Girl: 937,336 (slight pause) oop (giggle, sigh, pause) 937,334 BC
- Noise outside from trucks very loud and makes it difficult to hear the counting/reciting sometimes.
- Reflection of window of the front of the gallery falls directly on the window in front of the readers, standing in the southwest corner. Can’t see the man reading at all - his voice is a ghost voice, making it seem more like a recording than a reading.
- Nature of performance? Despite it claiming to simply allow visitors to “view the process of CD production”
- If a performance, then it breaks the 4th wall. I made eye contact numerous times with the female reader. It wasn’t weird like it is when an actor catches your gaze. But I thought maybe she thought I was weird for just sitting and listening to the years pass.
- It crossed my mind that I should stay and listen to new readers, a new cast.
- And then I thought, wow, everyone always says, Well each person has their own experience of art, but this is truly a different piece of art because the readers change.
- Is this even art? Is the art the books? Perhaps the final CDs produced from these sessions?
- What about the nature of fulling exposing a process? We see the “sound techie,” the computer, the performers, etc.
- Why are 1969-1996 not part of the time continuum? Kawara is still alive, so… ?
- Then: Oh my god will they ever record all of it? They are only on 937,185 BC! (Note from later: "It is believed 2,700 CDs will be needed to complete the reading of [the work]. On average, if 27 CDs are produce yearly, the entire project will take 100 years to complete." - Press Release. Um so no... they probably won't).

- At some point I stopped listening and wasn’t hearing the words anymore.
- What happens to mistakes on the recordings? How does the editing process work?
- Strange: around 11:25 am, the readers took a break, had their photograph taken, posing as if they were reading, and then continued on.
- I found it VERY obnoxious that the tops of the Plexiglas cases displaying the tomes were dirty. DIRRRTY.
- A girl came in during the break and didn’t stay to hear them read! Didn’t experience the “process” at all. Harumph.
- If you listen carefully I think it almost sounds like a conversation. Even slight pauses are pregnant. Normal voice intonation starts sounding like a rollercoaster
- Man: Nine-hundred, thirty-seven thousand, fifty-five… BC
- Woman: Nine-hundred, thirty-seven thousand, fifty-four BC
- Man: Nine-hundred, thirty-seven thousand, fifty-three BC
- Woman: Nine-hundred, thirty-seven thousand, fifty-two BC
- Why must they read? What is the difference between reading and counting? Counting and reciting? Reading and reciting?
- Looked at my watch at 11:00 am, but didn’t note what “year” it was, and now I feel like I don’t know how much time has passed, even though I can look at my watch and see it is 11:24 am. Becomes like “Lost” – not asking where we are, but when we are. (Doo doo doo ... Twilight zone music.)
- AWESOME when they paused to turn the page, could hear the page turning. All of a sudden felt like, where did time go? Because it was not anticipated like when the woman arrived to photograph the readers.
- I got bored! I am a bad person! I don’t appreciate art!
- Last two years as I left the gallery to the cacophonous cement truck outside: 936,973 BC; 936,972 BC
- TIME PASSED: approximately 30 minutes and also 375 years.