Post 6: Crossing out something in the world

a) Crossing out as a way to have something simultaneously be both itself and its opposite.

-I feel like a crossed out object exists as the original object it is with an added identity component; it’s a fire hydrant that has been crossed out, but it's now also a crossed out fire hydrant. (?) Crossing out gives attention both to the object that was X-ed and the new X-ed object, hence, itself and its opposite?

-Though, is the opposite of a fire hydrant a crossed out fire hydrant? What would be a better opposite?

    ...negative fire hydrant (–fire hydrant) (as in [minus] fire hydrant)

    ...adding "-un" to a fire hydrant (un-fire hydrant)

    

b) Crossing out as an action you can’t actually carry out on an object.

-I think of crossing out as a part of “writing” language–something that only exists in the flat space of a page, and in this way, not really applicable to something in the three-dimensional world. How can a two-dimensional act (crossing out) intersect with a three-dimensional object (fire hydrant)? Also, crossing out denotes a mistake, something wrong; I think of a cross-out as being on something that is unfinished or not finalized.

-Compared to crossing out a written mistake on a page, I foresee heightened degrees of embarrassment/awkwardness (=excitement) for crossing out something that seems like a mistake in the world (or for indicating something as a mistake through the act of crossing it out). This is not what my intention was with crossing out the fire hydrant here–it just seemed like a viable thing to try this out on.

Things to cross out because they do seem like mistakes:

a pothole, a dead flower, a broken bench

Things to cross out because they don't seem like mistakes:

a crosswalk, a building, a tree

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Post 31: The negation of a painting

Post 38: A few things from The Pond Froze Over at Procession Gallery

Post 35: Writing about painting can't be done / writing about some paintings in Wet Diagram