content needs a grave to go to

Marlene Dumas is this incredible South African artist I discovered while visiting the MOMA in New York this past winter. She's an incredibly intimate, unique painter whose work pulls at the nature of our own humanity, our existence... She says that content needs a grave to go to. It's an interesting concept when you think about it- the notion that material needs a place to rest, or rather, die- to get buried, left deep beneath the surface so that perhaps other content can find its growth on top of it... so that life can continue without it, beyond it, in spite of it. She explores this idea of 'measuring' one's grave. What does it mean to quantify or somehow attempt an assessment of one's death? Or how should one come to his or her own end- what does that even look like?

And like a work of art, how do we ever come to find those endings? It's not the same as human life, certainly. Yet, I don't think any work of art is ever completely finished. When we're working within such transitory, subjective concepts and frames, how are we to truly come to some conclusion? Some sort of finished product?

I think it's because we're dealing with the human form. We're dealing with the physical body, and the pieces, colors, and textures- the very medium of the work ( in dance specifically) is constantly changing, growing, and coming into an understanding of self. The very components coming together to create the work are not concrete, thus, how can we create something finished? We can't. Because even within performance the work changes. And those bodies move in and out of that work into another. And more over, I think it's less about the actual work being this completely finished thing and more about our sense or impression of the work there after. Is our impression complete in a sense? Is our reaction to our comprehension of the work leaving us with a feeling of completeness... of totality? It's about who we are and what we're bringing to a work of art that informs our response- its quality, depth, and impact on our perceptions...

And long after a work has left its impression on us, that impression, over time, fades away. It finds a grave... a place to rest, so that other impressions can find their place beside or on top of it... and these layers just build and build over time, until one cannot help but realize that each work viewed is just an impression on top of an impression on top of an impression... and we are informed and influenced by the work that has come before and will follow after... even if we don't realize it.

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"a painting needs a wall to object to
an image needs edges to relate to
content needs a grave to go to"
-marlene dumas