Duration Piece #11 1969

Curator: Douglas Huebler created "Duration Piece #11" in 1969, a photographic exploration laid out as a twelve-panel grid. Each panel appears to capture a tangle of branches, perhaps burdened with snow, almost like a minimalist winter landscape. What strikes you immediately? Editor: There’s a sense of cold, obviously—that monochromatic palette! But I am struck by the density of symbols. It feels almost like a veiled message, like trying to read nature itself. Curator: In line with Huebler’s Conceptual Art stance, this artwork challenges traditional notions. I like to see that geometric imposition as a disruption to the natural and what is perceived. Editor: Interesting… like, he's containing something chaotic. Are those shapes… snowflakes? Perhaps the work embodies chaos with mathematical, yet symbolic order—it hints that even in nature's disarray, one can decode the structure within. Curator: Or perhaps a little wink to our perceived attempts to contain or decode it. I feel it has more to do with how ephemeral things are… He captures these trees across what he deems as specific instances of ‘duration.’ That act itself shifts the moment. Like our attempts to grab smoke! Editor: Precisely. Time, memory, perception, all shifting sands... and the branches look almost like an attempt to sketch the cosmos, reflecting something eternal with something so temporal like branches. Curator: Do you think those shapes and repeated geometric structures throughout history echo each other? In any case, It makes me reflect that what we believe is here, now, can, as quickly as the click of the camera or shutter of the lens, change, or shift into abstraction. A ghost… A memory! Editor: Agreed! Seeing this piece does bring forth this realization and, furthermore, leaves one to ponder how humans attempt to control what by essence shifts. The symbol within, it seems, remains within that question! Curator: A visual riddle. Editor: Exactly! Well said, leaving me thinking deeper than I came, per usual.