// BLURB //
Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a craft. To give an idea of how much time that is: you could view 2.4 million TikTok videos; smoke 120,000 cigarettes; watch 75,000 episodes of 大头儿子; cook 3,333 average-sized American Thanksgiving turkeys; work 1,250 full days; or participate in 1.5 full-term pregnancies. This is not an insignificant amount of time. But the fact is, spending this time is doable and maybe even necessary if you ever want to shed Nietzsche’s burden. Mastering a skill is a process by which we no longer have to face ourselves and where we, the rudderless, can become masters of our own existence. Quickly we learned that masters produce servants and servants are weak. Quickly we learned that the weak inherit nothing. Martin Buber’s solution to this is to cultivate what he calls an I-Thou relation to the world which repositions the other, taking the other from a modernistic “it” of things-to-be-used to a sensitively-understood and holistic “Thou,” which has both complexity and dignity. Yet you ask, “Are we not machines?”
Malcolm Gladwell claims that it takes 10,000 hours to truly master a craft. To give an idea of how much time that is: you could view 2.4 million TikTok videos; smoke 120,000 cigarettes; watch 75,000 episodes of 大头儿子; cook 3,333 average-sized American Thanksgiving turkeys; work 1,250 full days; or participate in 1.5 full-term pregnancies. This is not an insignificant amount of time. But the fact is, spending this time is doable and maybe even necessary if you ever want to shed Nietzsche’s burden. Mastering a skill is a process by which we no longer have to face ourselves and where we, the rudderless, can become masters of our own existence. Quickly we learned that masters produce servants and servants are weak. Quickly we learned that the weak inherit nothing. Martin Buber’s solution to this is to cultivate what he calls an I-Thou relation to the world which repositions the other, taking the other from a modernistic “it” of things-to-be-used to a sensitively-understood and holistic “Thou,” which has both complexity and dignity. Yet you ask, “Are we not machines?”
// EDITION, MEDIA, SIZE & WEIGHT //
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2019
TFT display, CCD camera, acrylic painting on Plexiglass, teakwood frame
65.5(W)×46.5(H)×5.5(D) cm // 9 kg
// EXPOSURE //
“Perimeters, Edges, and Walls” at island6 Shanghai Main Space
Unique Edition, Shanghai 2019
TFT display, CCD camera, acrylic painting on Plexiglass, teakwood frame
65.5(W)×46.5(H)×5.5(D) cm // 9 kg
// EXPOSURE //
“Perimeters, Edges, and Walls” at island6 Shanghai Main Space
// CREDITS //
Owen 欧文 (painting) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Carlin Reinig (blurb)
Owen 欧文 (painting) • Thomas Charvériat (art direction) • Yeung Sin Ching 杨倩菁 (production supervisor) • Carlin Reinig (blurb)