It was too cold to go and watch the cricket this Sunday so I've been doing the little undone things about the house, diverting myself from approaching the precipice of actually properly starting one of the big things I've been planning to do, which will take several months. Fortunately crisis averted upon picking up Thames & Hudson's 'First Works by 362 artists'.
The dipping in led to something Richard Serra wrote that is relateable about his early work with four large lead plates (480 lbs each);
What was satisfying about the piece was that the aesthetic came from the solution of the problem and nothing extraneous was necessary.
The piece satisfied all the problems of what an aesthetic solution could be without having to go outside the limitations and counter-limitations that it set up for itself.
For me, having resumed image making after a few months out, this helps confirm the thinking I've found myself doing over the last few days. The sensibility to be reductive is resistance to the temptation to add more stuff, whether that be colour or layer/texture effects or upping the complexity of forms. It's holding off, and valuing enough is enough. Even so, it will be a year or two or more from now when I'll unexpectedly come across what I've been doing and will know if those choices actually amounted to anything of worth or if enough actually fell well short.
Lead antimonyFour plates, each 48 × 48 × 1 inch