The Given No.2 与えられたもの No.2

Two grayish-white canvases are joined together, and one of them has letters in bright colors written over it. The letters read: "The given describes languages through training.... When in turn languages are used to describe the given,... it seems that the mechanism (process) of meaning occurs.... Shape is used to plot sense, color to relate quality of nonsense. A similar pairing might be found in any living room." This abstruse text seems to express a skepticism toward languages and "The Mechanism of Meaning". After gaining recognition for his esoteric concrete objects in the late 1950s, Shusaku Arakawa left for New York in 1961. Since this move to the U.S., his style has gone through a radical change. Today he is internationally renowned for his works which express his original philosophical insights through the combined use of visual images, objects, diagrams, words, and letters. With the relationships of objects and their images and the way they are perceived as his clues, he has worked on issues in language and meaning, and in the recent years, has been engaged in creating models of perception and experience, thus touching upon some fundamental issues tackled by latest philosophy and science. This particular work has also been used as an illustration for his book The Mechanism of Meaning, co-authored with his wife, the poet Madeline H. Gins.