74V07 Possibly 1973 - 1993

John Divola made this black and white photograph, 74V07, of a wall–or maybe it's a window?–with paint, sometime in the 20th century. The surface is ruined and falling apart, but on top of the decay, there’s another layer of marks: Dots and dashes, like a strange language. What I like about this image is how Divola embraces the accidental. The texture is so present. You can almost feel the grit and crumbling plaster. It looks like he wasn't trying to hide the process, but rather emphasizing it. Those splatters and drips? That's where the magic happens. There's a kind of beauty in the mess, a freedom that comes from letting go of control. Look how the light hits the broken edge of the wall–it’s like a tiny, perfect sculpture. It puts me in mind of Robert Rauschenberg’s combines, where he glued all sorts of junk to canvases. These artists ask us to rethink what art can be and to find beauty in unexpected places.