Andy Warhol (b. 1928, USA – d. 1987, USA)
Empire, 1964
Sleep, 1963

Oh no, again… One more Warhol… maybe it’s season of reappearances…

Yes, it’s about the length and fear – or lack of it – of being boring. Five hours and twenty minutes of someone sleeping; eight hours and and five minutes of watching the top of Empire state building in slow motion… And I was afraid that my barely ten minutes of yellow wall – four of which have been packed with shadow action – was obscenely long. The speed of time has certainly accelerated over the last fifty years, but still… Warhol was famous enough to get away with such stuff, but still… And I am still uncertain what exactly that got them into the canon – is it just the boldness of the gesture, it is the fame of the maker, or was there some clever PR machinery working in the background?

Well, I do have “24 hours of now” by now and keep considering other strategies for how to make “big” or “monumental” works with my limited space and budget, so it feels most pertinent to get my bold predecessors in a row.