When a “work is open” the observer is indispensable for its completion, I believe that the work is only completed when it asks its interlocutor to complete it.
If I say “unfinished”, what is the first thing that comes to your mind?
I am thinking of the great “unfinished” artists, Leonardo and Michelangelo, in particular; a non-finiteness due to two very valid and perhaps antagonistic reasons. For Michelangelo, it was procured by faith, by the awareness of not being able to represent the mystical nature of his subjects. Leonardo, on the other hand, discovered his limit was purely scientific, the inability to represent “nature” in its perfect complexity. This restlessness translates into profound and exhausting research incapable of real representations.
Unfinished, what colour or shape is it?
Black, because everything hides and reveals itself in black, it is the prince of colours. In total darkness, every shape and colour is possible, just like in the infinite solutions of the unfinished.
Something unfinished that you would like finished?
I probably would have liked to have witnessed the fulfilment of Hokusai’s artistic and spiritual testament. He stated that only at the age of one hundred would his ability to paint reach the divine dimension, and only at one hundred and ten each line and point of his drawings would have a life of their own. Unfortunately, he died at 89.
When is work done for you?
Whenever it asks the observer to participate in its creation (these are the words of Michelangelo Pistoletto). When a “work is open” the observer is indispensable for its completion, I believe that the work is only completed when it asks its interlocutor to complete it.
3 words that you would match with unfinished?
Open, space, curiosity.