Study for No.16

The starting point for the work is Google Arts & Culture's release of high-resolution scans of various artworks (categorized as masterpieces) for the close scrutiny of the general public. As I was intently examining Jackson Pollock’s work "No.16", I initially encountered a stain resembling a human face that reminded me of one of Albert Camus’ well-known photographs. When I continued to examine the painting, I also came across some letters in Pollock’s random arrangement of drippings. Imagining that I could form words out of these letters, I attempted to write the opening lines of Camus’ ‘The Stranger’. I changed the first word of the novel, which is ‘maman/my mother’ to ‘masterpieces’, rewriting the sentence as, ‘Masterpieces died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know.’ I regard the whole endeavor as my effort to create my own meaning out of a kind of meaninglessness.