Untitled (Stack) 1992

Win Knowlton's 'Untitled (Stack)' presents us with a tower of horizontal lines intersected by diagonal ones, all rendered in ink on paper. The dominant motif here is the construction of a stack, a form of building that speaks to the human impulse to create order and hierarchy. But consider how this simple stack echoes the Tower of Babel, a symbol of human ambition and the inevitable fall. We see echoes of this motif in other works, from ancient ziggurats to modern skyscrapers, each striving towards the heavens. The diagonal lines, precarious and unsettling, suggest a lack of stability. It evokes a sense of underlying tension, a collective anxiety about control and the potential for collapse. The lines of the tower, however, continue to be constructed and deconstructed through time, in an ongoing cycle of creation and destruction.