For the late artist On Kawara, time is everything. His titles state as much. "One Million Years" chronicles every year from 998,031 B.C. to A.D. 1,001,997, written plainly in a seemingly never-ending cascade of numbered pages. Since 1993, the work has been read aloud in public spaces, by volunteers in Paris, New York, London, Amsterdam and beyond. One woman and one man sit at a table, each taking turns reciting one date after the next; odd years for him, evens for her. Half of the numbers are an homage to the past -- dedicated to "all those who have lived and died." The others are a nod to the future -- dedicated ominously to "the last one."
This explains what's happening at the Guggenheim in New York City right now. Walk by the building and you'll hear disembodied voices reciting years both familiar -- one thousand nine hundred and sixty-nine, the year we landed on the moon, and strange -- two hundred and forty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-four, millenia after our existence.
The "One Million Years" performances, taking place until May 3, are part of the "On Kawara -- Silence" exhibition, a posthumous reflection on a Japanese artist obsessed with documenting his every happening. From his "Today" series (monochromatic paintings of dates) to his "I Got Up" postcards to his "I Am Still Alive" telegraphs to his "I Went" maps to his "I Met" recordings to his "I Read" newspaper clippings ... the show is as exhaustive and overwhelming as it is meditative and concise.
After participating in a Sunday performance, HuffPost writer Mallika Rao and editor Katherine Brooks decided to unpack the experience of reading dates without interruption in the atrium of one of New York's most popular art destinations. Here we go:
I AM STILL ALIVE #art
— On Kawara (@On_Kawara) April 12, 2015 Katherine Brooks: so, to start: what were your expectations going into this?
Mallika Rao: I was a pretty blank slate
i thought it might be scary?
for some reason, i thought that the task of saying a progression of years could prove too difficult for me
and I'd embarrass myself in public
but beyond that, few expectations
you?
KB: really? i would never have guessed. your voice is like velvet. it's like you were born to recite hundreds of numbers for an audience at a major art museum
i had very few expectations too.
i was a little nervous/but mostly i had forgotten that we volunteered so long ago that i didn't put much thought into the performance ahead of time
MR: i definitely did not expect the elaborate mental landscape i wandered through
during the recitation
KB: me neither!
i thought I would be consumed with not fucking up
but my mind went places
MR: colored by the amazing tidbit that on kawara would listen to these recordings and liked to see pictures of the people reciting
KB: yeah, that definitely gave the recitations more purpose or something? i'm surprised, but i didn't really feel at any point that reading the numbers was pointless
you know?
MR: the intro text to the exhibit mentioned how kawara was fascinated by the interplay of meaninglessness and significance
so like, a single person, or day, or year, is kind of insignificant in the big scheme
but is wholly unique too
i started to feel that way about the years
after saying each one, i felt kind of sad. like it was over
KB: when i reached 245,000 i really felt like i was ushering in a new millennium
i felt important
MR: hahaha
exactly!
it's incredible how the meaning remains attached to the number
even though a list of years is so decontextualized
KB: i thought it was interesting that they didn't make it easy for the reader to actually read the numbers
they were squished into columns and bled into each other
MR: lol true!
and everyone had their own system
KB: what was yours?
MR: at first, i did nothing
we discussed how we were kind of testing ourselves
to see if we could crush the recitation using only our mind vice
so i wasn't crossing [any of the dates] out
KB: yes!
i would try not to look at the paper, and just say the number that followed from my partner
MR: what did you think about the male/female odd/even split?
KB: in a really irrational way, i was so happy to be reading the even numbers
but, i'm not sure i really understood the male/female split
MR: i felt like it was a primal reference
like a yin and yang thing
0s and 1s
and somehow, evens do seem feminine to me, and odds masculine
KB: oh that's interesting
i agree, but i think i just loved being the one to start new decades, new centuries
i wonder if he felt like that, that after a while, this kind of obsessive documentation gives you some sense of control
or total abandon
MR: that's great. your priorities are good. i had a thought that maybe only makes sense in my head, but i felt like it correlated to the symbols for genitalia, and more generally, a patriarchal concept of genders -- the phallus is disruptive, in the way that odd numbers are sort of hard to manage, and the yoni is kind of yielding and pliant, like even numbers
KB: that's a really good take. we should ask the men what they think...
did you ever think of something besides on kawara, the numbers, the years
did your mind wander away from the performance?
MR: yes
well
it wandered off kawara
but i was pretty focused on the performance
i thought about the viewers
particularly the ones who got really close and looked at us like we were zoo animals
i just wondered what they were wondering about
KB: i did too! i locked eyes with people and just thought, do you care that i'm doing this?
MR: also, i had no sense of how far our voices traveled
you must have had a better sense since you wandered first
KB: i heard your voice when i walked up to the guggenheim
it was playing outside
MR: yes
i heard the previous pair
and was like, wow
that will be me!
it made me feel strangely important
again, unique but insignificant
KB: i can get behind that
that kind of world view
MR: it was funny
when i was walking around later, and you and cameron were reciting, i only noticed you in moments
i didn't think about you guys much, which was so strange considering that i knew firsthand how intense the experience was for you guys
your voices really did become part of the exhibit
KB: there was just so much to take in visually, the auditory stimulus ended up being atmosphere for me the farther i trekked
what did you think of the actual pieces on view?
MR: i really liked the exhibit
i'd seen the today series before, but seeing it in context with his other work makes it better
KB: the "i am still alive" telegraphs were my favorite
he affirmed his existence in so many different ways
MR: i loved those
it all makes him seem like a funny old man
kind of seeming to play jokes on everyone, but very serious underneath
KB: his postcards were sent to big names, sol lewitt, baldessari, vito acconci
MR: do you think they put them up on their fridges?
KB: right? were they buddies?
or was this one sided
they were sort of walls for him to bounce off
MR: clearly they were kept carefully
that's an interesting story right there, the collection of all those postcards
you were saying you would have preferred to read dates in the past
KB: yeah
i think i am so naturally nostalgic, i think a lot about the past
MR: did you have any thoughts about the future?
222,000 years from now...
KB: i did, but mostly, i didn't really think of any living people
i kind of thought we were speaking into a void
MR: it's hard to imagine people that far away
but do you actually believe there will be no people at that point
KB: if i had to guess, i'd say no. and even if there were, not people that we would recognize
MR: fair enough
the subtitles of the pieces are interesting
according to david zwirner: The subtitle for One Million Years [Past] is “For all those who have lived and died.” The subtitle for One Million Years [Future] is “For the last one.”
meaning the last human?
KB: wow
so maybe he felt like our extinction was kind of inevitable
MR: maybe
i think i preferred reading the future dates
it felt magical
we know the past has happened, but we don't know that the future will
so it's possible you're one of the only people who will ever utter that date in all of history
KB: how did you feel about the fact that on kawara recently died?
MR: i was sad
the whole experience just made me want to meet him
and talk to him
and also, i loved the idea of him listening to us
and looking at our picture, and having thoughts about us
KB: did it make you want to document your life?
MR: it's funny, i'm so deep in the konmari method [from The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up] right now
which in a way is about systematically wiping the traces of your existence away
or at least, curating those traces more carefully
KB: what a contrast!
MR: i have been thinking about what i would pass on to my kids
my mom left me so many clothes, not for me exactly, but just because she couldn't bear to get rid of them
but each one feels imprinted with her existence
KB: on kawara's kind of knowledge hoarding is so immaterial
MR: it's interesting, self-documentation as art
at some level self documentation drives most creative work
KB: i guess we're leaving our tweets to posterity...
MR: have you ever tried reading someone's very early tweets?
it's hard
there was that whole scare a few months back about how we're in danger of losing the record of an era of human history
because of how much information is digital, and could simply disappear
KB: or be locked away
on kawara didn't have to go back and blush at his borecore live journal... date keeping, it's so objective
MR: yeah
it's kind of unemotional
which is maybe a drawback
KB: then, at the same time, we all attach different sentiments to different dates
did you look for your birthday?
MR: ha!
...i didn't!!!
but that's such a good point
there's a person out there for every date
who'll love it
KB: when i first started thinking about on kawara, i thought he was obsessed with his own self and his place in a world of numbers
but now i feel like he's patting us all on the back in a way
like, i acknowledge you, i want to give you that
it seems so... kind
MR: that's interesting
"On Kawara -- Silence" will be on view at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum from Feb. 6 to May 3, 2015.
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