rage against the zero
Minimalist art has been approaching zero for too long. It is getting closer and closer to actually being nothing. If this trend continues, minimalist art soon will cease to exist.
We have made solid black paintings such as Bob Law’s Bordeaux Black Blue Black (1977). We have even written about the idea of art as nothingness as Keith Arnatt did in Is it Possible for me to do Nothing as my Contribution to this Exhibition? (1970) And currently London’s Institute for Contemporary Art displays Cerith Wyn Evans’ take my eyes and through them see you… (2006) which consists of two continuously looped four-minute 35mm films. One film is solid black, and the other is solid white. I see very little difference between Law’s work of 1977 and Evans’ work of 2006. I think that art should change over time because there is little artistic value in reproducing what has already been created.
If art continues to become increasingly minimalistic, this is what I predict will happen: Artists themselves will become their artwork; they will stand naked in museums behind panes of glass, and we will study them. Then the human body will become too substantial; the artists will leave the museums and will replace themselves with nothing but air. Then the air itself will become too substantial, so we will suck the air out of the exhibits in an attempt to create matterless art. We will try to create absolute vacuums, which theoretically are spaces void of all matter. But quantum theory suggests that it is impossible to create an absolute vacuum, so we will have partial vacuums instead. Every museum will have one. Other art will still exist, but it will seem ridiculously substantive when viewed next to a partial vacuum. This is as close as we could get to nothing.
This is too close, so let’s revolt against nothing! Let’s fight against the zero! Let’s create art with substance and with form. Let’s not forget minimalism; let’s incorporate nothingness into our new style of art. But only part of the art will be nothing; the rest of the art will be something.
This is substantialism. Substantialist art consciously tries to be something, not nothing. Substantialist art focuses on what it is, not on what it is not.