Recording Time

Through looking at childhood behaviour into adult hood and linking method of making and the importance of the material it occurred to me that my current project is highly associated with time.
I began researching in to the idea of how I might collaborate with time for my next project, taking what I have learnt so far in my current project (creative strategies) into the next; Pushing and developing my experimentation with materials in order for the viewer to experience there own interpretation of my work, in relation to the life cycle and our physical and unphysical connection to the world. At this point in my project I have started to question our mortality and where the mind is actually located with in the body and if in fact it can be contained at all.

On Kawara is a Japanese conceptual artist whose work is a question of survival; a matter of life and death and the existence of pure consciousness.

The Today series is an ongoing collection of conceptual paintings began in the 1960's, each created on the date indicated and in the language of the country of which it was painted. Each painting takes a whole day to create and can therefore been seen as a literal object to represent that particular day in the artists life.  His work highly reflects his separation and isolation from the world, never agreeing to be interviewed or photographed and always absent from private viewings of his work. His whereabouts and even his existence has become somewhat questionable, is he even still alive?
On kawara's art practice also includes sending daily postcards to his friends indicating the time he woke up or the fact that he is still alive referring to the "reading of days" - an ancient Japanese ritual that is practiced in order to predict the arrival of the gods.

Viewing On kawara's work, some people might be disappointed or confused by the simplicity of the works, but this is what intrigues me most, along side his seemingly self isolating persona and artistic behaviour. He continues to paint the today series yet is reluctant to be acknowledged or associated with his practice in the media. I think this holds great importance when viewing his works, is he counting down/up the days? If so to what? In his own way is he perhaps trying to control time? What’s engaging about his works is that depending on the year or time or even the viewer themselves each piece of work could be interpreted as something entirely different each time. Perhaps they are unique in the sense that when a day passes we are unable to physically experience it again. Everyone has special and memorable dates which when reminded of them or upon viewing them often thinking of a particular memory or person in time. Is On Kawara then, through creating these physical objects of time suggesting immortality? Time is often considered as precious, that we only have one life to physically live and breath but is it perhaps possible that through physicality of our minds at a particular time in relation to our connection to the world that we can in fact live forever?