Drawing for Changes and Disappearances No. 33 1979 - 1982

John Cage made "Drawing for Changes and Disappearances No. 33" on a sheet of paper. The spidery pencil lines crawl all over the page, mapping out an unknown terrain. I like how Cage embraces the messiness of process. It’s all there on the surface, no attempt to hide or prettify. You can see the ghost of erasures, the starts and stops. He’s letting us in on his thinking, his hesitations. The writing looks like an inventory of materials or instructions, little coded messages. The shapes are like landmasses seen from above. I keep returning to the upper left, the way the tape interferes with the drawing – that unexpected diagonal slicing through the "Pulo" form. It reminds me of Rauschenberg’s combines, this bringing together of disparate elements. Cage’s work makes me think about how art can be a form of notation, a way of recording thoughts and actions, rather than just a polished product. Art's a conversation, an ongoing exploration. It’s not about having all the answers, but about embracing the questions.