dyhoon, decide

Tehching Hsieh, ‘Cage Piece’, 1978-9.

‘On September 30, 1978, Mr. Hsieh entered a sparsely furnished wooden cell he had constructed in his loft, had it secured with paper seals by his lawyer to confirm that he never left the space, and spent the next year confined there without a television or a radio, never talking, writing, or reading. He had himself photographed every day and allowed the public to observe him once or twice a month from 11:00am to 5:00pm. Returning on September 29, 1979, his lawyer affirmed that all seals were intact, and the artist exited his cage, having spent an entire year “doing absolutely nothing”, according to New York Times art critic Roberta Smith in a review of this and the four other “One Year Performances” Mr. Hsieh would go on to offer. Ms. Smith likens his project to that of “a fanatical devotee of some religion” but concludes that the artist’s subject is “the almost palpable immensity and emptiness of time, nothing but time, of life as the filling of time…”‘

Andrei Tarkovsky’s advice to young people

I think one of the faults of young people today is that they try to come together around events that are noisy, almost aggressive at times. This desire to be together in order to not feel alone is an unfortunate symptom, in my opinion. Every person needs to learn from childhood how to spend time with oneself. That doesn’t mean he should be lonely, but that he shouldn’t grow bored with himself because people who grow bored in their own company seem to me in danger, from a self-esteem point of view.

Late Spring | Yasujirô Ozu | 1949

“A human life is truly as frail and fleeting as the morning dew.”