Sino-Trolley/ROCI CHINA 1986

This behemoth of a combine-painting is called Sino-Trolley/ROCI CHINA by Robert Rauschenberg. I see it as a kind of riddle – a poem that is also a machine. I imagine Rauschenberg in his studio – or maybe in China – thinking about how cultures can connect. He’s got these big, spindly wheels like something from a dream, and then these panels, each with different images and colors. It’s like he’s saying, “Here are all these different things, all these different ways of seeing the world. How do they fit together?” The colors are muted, almost faded, giving the whole thing a kind of ghostly quality. And those images – some are clear, others are blurry. It’s not about perfection or clarity but about the messy, complicated process of trying to understand each other. Rauschenberg was always experimenting, always pushing the boundaries of what art could be, and he encourages us to do the same.