Sunday, February 17, 2019

The_Paradox_of_Eco_Logic_by_Mark_Daniel_Cohen

To not know the work of Agnes Denes is to not know the history of contemporary art. 
In the manner in which she practices Conceptual Art, there are actual concepts involved.
Art as visual symbolism possesses all the clarity and lucidity of an impeccable logical argument combined with the lyricism of a beautiful melody.  
It is not merely a replacement for the aesthetic experience, with its inevitable mystical overtonesit is comparable to that quality of deep insight. 
The means by which Denes reaches beyond the intelligibility of rational knowledge by adopting and following the findings of rational inquiry is paradox
In Denes’s art, evident paradox takes the place of unintelligible, otherwise inexpressible insight in traditional art.
Pascal’s triangle is not an invention, not a theoretical mind game that fulfills itself according to a proposed set of ultimately arbitrary rulesit is a discovery, one that has consistently demonstrated its pertinence as a foundation for probability theory.
Syzygy“The Moment of . . .”, 1972-73, is one of Denes’s most potent and demonstrative testaments to the legitimacy of thought as revelatory of the truth of the world. 
And therein lies the paradox of knowledge, and the essential paradox of the human predicament. Our knowledge appears to us to have been freely chosen, but it is not so much that we think the system; it is the system that thinks us.    

from http://agnesdenesstudio.com/pdf/WRITINGS_The_Paradox_of_Eco_Logic_by_Mark_Daniel_Cohen.pdf  

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