“These are the ‘magical’ references that are as relevant as the ideas they trigger and as consistent as the artworks they help to create…”
We can certainly live without objects, but it is unclear if we would be able to remember without having them around. We use Finds* as points of reference, they guide us through complicated trips and while creating, they keep us away from the emptiness that a blank piece of paper carries. Finds exist to remember and we create artworks to be remembered. In Luis Barragáns’ residency in Mexico City, there was a piece of furniture that looked like an umbrella; it had a single standing foot and ended with four tilted flat surfaces like a pyramid.
On this fascinating object Barragán displayed books, prints and drawings that he was working with at any time. Often friends visited him and he would share and discuss with them what was temporarily displayed on his ‘umbrella’. Sometimes he asked his friends to take some of his Finds as presents. If we would have been one of Barragán’s guests and he would have asked us to choose between one of his Finds and one of his actual artworks, without hesitation we would have taken the Find. Would you take just a glass of water or the whole spring?
*Finds: Found objects, documents or any kind of found material used directly or indirectly in the process of creating an artwork.
