Excerpt from “Paintings Made Following a Procedure (Determined by Me) and Yet Unrelated to Me (Nonexpressive)” (1985)

I made a roulette wheel equipped with bearings and divided it into eight fan-shaped sections.

I then drew eight sections on a canvas that potentially corresponded to those on the roulette wheel.

I numbered every pigment available in the studio: green (coating paint): 1; emerald green (mixture of colored powder and resin): 2; sienna (mixture of colored powder and resin): 3; green (ink): 4; red (mixture of colored powder and resin): 5; black (mixture of colored powder and resin): 6; red (mixture of colored powder and resin): 7; medium yellow (mixture of colored powder and resin): 8; black (ink): 9; ultramarine (mixture of colored powder and resin): 10; fire engine red (ink): 11; light yellow (coating paint): 12; black (nitrocellulose lacquer): 13; blue (oil paint): 14; white (oil paint): 15; yellow (ink): 16; red (acrylic paint): 17; used brush cleaner: 18; used brush cleaner: 19; dark blue (acrylic paint): 20; red ocher (ink): 21; orange-yellow (acrylic paint): 22; white (ink): 23; white (coating paint): 24; white (mixture of colored powder and resin): 25.

The numbers of these pigments were all assigned in a random way.

Then I made twenty-five dice, each with a number that corresponded to a pigment: (pigment 1)—(die 1)

I used the roulette wheel to decide how to develop the composition on the canvas.

And I chose the numbered pigment by tossing dice.

In all, I turned the roulette wheel sixty-four times to complete the composition and thus resolved the problem of when to stop working on a painting (that is, to finish). The number sixty-four was decided entirely by me; there was nothing absolute about it.

Using this random method to solve the problem of choosing colors, developing the composition, and determining the final look of a work of art allowed me to deal exclusively with numbers, which are nonvisual and nonaesthetic, and thus enabled me to get away from the deliberate (or nondeliberate) control of the laws of form. In other words, it was possible to get away from personal preferences for certain colors and compositions, to regard all pigments as being one and the same—regardless of the different colors, warm or cold, oil or water-based—and to consider all compositions as good, that is, to make no distinction between good and bad compositions. Both color and composition thus lost their meaning.

Chance led me to the following orders:
9—13—18—20: X
black (ink)—black (nitrocellulose lacquer)—used brush cleaner—green (acrylic paint): Y

When I thought about X, I didn’t see any contradictions in the order of these numbers, nor did I ever think about whether it was good or bad or have any preferences.

When I thought about Y, however, I started wondering whether it was really necessary to put black on top of black; whether it would be difficult to add a water-based paint on top of an oil-based one; whether an oil-based nitrocellulose paint being smeared onto normal ink would cause cracking, blistering, and peeling of the paint; or whether it was not going to be unsightly to paint the green color onto the dirty used brush cleaner.

Thinking about Y resulted in a painting process full of psychological obstacles; in contrast, thinking about X allowed me to use a particular red without considering it as that particular red and to paint without seeing it as painting.

The numbers randomly appointed by the roulette wheel when it stopped spinning would dictate the potential composition of the canvas. They also led me to overlap coats of paint in the bottom right section of the canvas:
1—2—3—4: order of spinning
8—8—8—7: numbers on the roulette wheel
8—8—8—7: corresponding numbers on the canvas

As the embodiment of the laws of form, the composition completely loses its harmony, variation, void, and unity. The aesthetic consciousness a person normally has when working on a painting is reduced to such a great extent that painting is now considered a natural thing to be carried out.


Excerpt from “An Essay on Art Starting from Emptiness” (1987)

Is it possible for a person to take photos he himself won’t like looking at? In other words, how can you gauge, or prove, that this is really something you like? Perhaps what you believe you don’t like is in reality what you want to see the most. Lying is possible; all genuine attitudes are demonstrated in the form of lies or overtly claimed as being false—I exhibit things I don’t like.

Whatever I am writing here is pure chance; therefore, art is a matter of chance. A work of art is something that happens by chance. Rather than saying that a work of art is trying to communicate, it would be better to say that it is afraid of communication; that’s right, when it’s not communication, it is definitely not communication. If a work of art ever has an intention behind it, it must be that it wants and doesn’t want, it doesn’t want and wants, it wants to have an intention but in the end has no intention at all.

The fact that I exhibit a work of art I dislike has nothing much to do with the public. Therefore, we must oppose all kinds of forms: that of Buddhism, of book shops, of hairdressing salons, of exhibitions, of gallery shows, and so on—that is, all forms that can straightforwardly be given a name. You need only go out onto the street and take a look around. To destroy form, you must first break the necessary bond between the name and the thing the name refers to. The fact that a person instantly says “cup” when he sees a cup proves how stereotyped the form of a cup has become, just like Buddhists we see who always go around in big groups. If you are not immediately able to come up with the term cup when you see one, because the object you see doesn’t look at all like a cup, then this cup has rid itself of its form. Anything capable of escaping from its form is worthy of celebration. The fact that man lives in this world is something worthy of celebration, because it is extraordinary to have the form of a human body, which appears to be breaking away from a form, although it ultimately falls back into a form.

There are no trees, flowers, or grass here, so we cannot think right; thinking right relies entirely on getting away from being haunted by form and meaning, in the same way that the existence of independent events in nature doesn’t rely on the probability of number. You shouldn’t take reading an essay of this kind too seriously, and yet you cannot be frivolous about it either. If you don’t feel like reading it, or are incapable of understanding it even after trying hard to read it, just skim through it and ignore it. Chance means that things are independent from one another; the sun’s existence is an independent thing, whereas language is not. In language there are appearances and therefore also disappearances; in the wake of disappearance there must then be appearance. The nonnecessity of independent things often results in an unnatural separation between man’s brain and his eyes, because it is also the art of man that enables the brain and eyes to be combined together. We point to an apple and teach children to say “apple.” Eyes make language learning become possible; it is impossible for man’s brain to think in one way while his eyes see in another way. I do something I dislike; in other words, what I do is not mine. If something I have created isn’t independent of me, it cannot be called a “creation.” Thus, a creation of mine is something independent of me, but so are other people’s creations; therefore, other people’s creations are my creations. This kind of syllogism cannot “stand up,” but then why can we not “lie down”? When a person calls his creation “his,” it is no longer his creation. Anything independent of me is my creation. Whatever you write is wrong, because a person must make things as if they were being made by somebody else; a person cannot at the same time be independent of the things he makes. One person and another person are both independent facts, however, and drawing lots and casting dice produce the chance of independent things; in the same way, a blind man and a person with his eyes covered also produce this kind of chance. This is why the world is so close to me, so as to produce the necessary logic of interrelationship. Why do eyes make people confused, rather than help them understand? Consequently, the question of taking photos of something that the photographer himself dislikes is meaningless. Yet we must persist in doing meaningless things, just as the eyes and the brain are the “buyer” and the “seller” at the same time. It is possible for a person to sell something back to himself that belonged to him in the first place. It is impossible for the eyes to deceive the brain, however, just as it is impossible for the brain to refuse to believe the eyes. The world for other people is bigger than it is for me. Writing meaningfully or, even more so, writing one thousand words in one go is difficult, especially if you also want them to be grammatically correct. It is easy to write ten thousand words meaninglessly, however, as long as there are people who are willing to read them. The meaningless world is much bigger than the meaningful world—this is as much nonsense as saying that other people’s worlds are bigger than mine. When other people change my intention, they make it impure but at the same time also expand it. If reasoning means dialectical logic, then it has no reason. All independent things are impure for me and have no reason. Creation or the concept of creation must constantly be “dried up.” When it’s not about creating something or anything about creation, creation will become something that belongs to others instead of to me. This concept will then be lost or be mixed up with irrelevant things.

In this essay it’s difficult to recognize what is written by me and what has been taken from other people’s books. Apparently, I oppose having my own thoughts, because my so-called self is in reality a kind of “other.” I no longer care about whether I have independent opinions; whether I successfully plagiarize, without leaving any trace; whether I clearly express my ideas; or whether I agree with the ideas I mentioned earlier in this essay.

The sixty-four entries on the small disk of the big roulette wheel:
1. make a typewriter
2. reduce according to the rules of perspective
3. heat a coin by placing it inside a book
4. falling water drops
5. apply projective geometry to a cube
6. page 86
7. restore the surface level
8. translate from one language to another
9. by quiet brown appear self
10. encounter
11. I enough am setting out
12. concerning the directions of a signposted road
13. confusion between the front and the back
14. wallpaper
15. art banner
16. sulfate
17. fat is not a good heat conductor
18. revamp a musical instrument
19. do a drawing of perspective
20. cover with feathers
21. hand is over inhaling round breath
22. infiltration device
23. the part that sticks out in the middle
24. token
25. painting in the shadows
26. object used for the first time
27. try again (this time doesn’t count)
28. open the first thing you come across (it is possible to open everything)
29. words in the newspaper, paper on the floor
30. set joints (elbow, ankle, wrist) in plaster
31. malnutrition
32. scattering of powderlike things
33. drop to the lowest level
34. monthly reading of the electricity meter
35. whatever happens, I simply cannot help laughing
36. extract fat (deep layer)
37. place a mark on a tree
38. blossoming and withering of flowers
39. special hook and surgery
40. rope made of straw
41. disrupt gravity
42. work with your head down
43. surface of a porous sprayer
44. be in compliance with new classicism
45. hairy-surfaced object
46. action on the beach
47. viscous matter
48. skin peeling
49. swaying of mechanical object
50. sit on the floor
51. septic substance
52. the tap is not turned off tightly
53. design a type of bridge
54. rigid appearance
55. do compulsively
56. hide
57. open the window, and the window with the curtain hanging down
58. write on the blackboard with a piece of chalk
59. watch things from above and from below
60. flatly ironed surface
61. 5, 12, 19, 26, 3, 10, 17
62. sear fabrics
63. write a sentence, erase it, then write another sentence and erase it again
64. (356–430)

The 384 entries on the big disk of the big roulette wheel:
1. drink water in great quantity
2. sorcery numbers: 3, 5, 9
3. oil or a dilution that is difficult to solidify
4. penetrate (solid state)
5. margarine
6. send a telegram
7. mirror with landscapes
8. motionless in appearance
9. in a regular way
10. enter or supervise corner fresh
11. design toiletlike equipment—antifunctional
12. spare box
13. smear cream on a furry surface
14. dirty a cup
15. object shaped like a new moon
16. kite-shaped sign
17. soft tube that lacks authenticity
18. with a sloping surface
19. T-shaped square
20. book with stripes
21. oxytocin
22. cut out 386 10-by-3-centimeter paper strips
23. blue-colored food
24. make gloves or high rain boots out of plaster
25. rows that fall down because of intense vibrations
26. curtains
27. imitation of fabric pads
28. feline behavior
29. the way we hang clothes
30. ever-growing pressure, pressure apparatus
31. make photocopies, sign names
32. between two telephone booths
33. something that has wings sprouting next to its mouth
34. object without identification marks
35. paper crumpled into a ball
36. degreasing apparatus
37. table leg
38. make some bowl-shaped objects out of cement, to contain water
39. have sunstroke or vertigo
40. column twisted into a spiral shape
41. revamp an umbrella
42. tackle block
43. something floating on the surface as if swimming
44. sediment
45. something that is almost unrelated to a hand
46. determine a sound with limits / sounds that determine the limits*
47. damp methods
48. pose in flying gestures
49. half-profile
50. upside-down letters
51. a tube with two functions simultaneously competing with each other
52. a kind of stored-up heat or energy
53. reproduce a fly swatter
54. hoarse singing
55. unreliable crossing out and correction
56. ways of opening the door
57. visceral model
58. make something while lying down
59. genealogical diagram
60. weigh something
61. liquid that solidifies quickly
62. reproduce a cushion
63. tool for opening things
64. make anatomical models
65. squeeze path new brief let
66. have difficulty in distinguishing the left from the right
67. rope with knots
68. nullify ( )
69. look at the mirror while leaning your back against it
70. check the drawer
71. close and open an envelope
72. cover a wall with wallpaper
73. clothing made of plaster
74. design curly hairstyles
75. tumble dryer
76. turn on the television and take black-and-white photos
77. toilet consciousness
78. on the top of ( )
79. make wet
80. have many suggestive doors and covers
81. a paradoxical script
82. be placed on the coat rack
83. scaffolding
84. saying all objective numbers is uninteresting
85. a type of soft food
86. add hot liquid to the boiler
87. something that is soft and produces smoke
88. 1–1000
89. processing, process the tool
90. interruption of burning
91. rectal consciousness
92. open out a cardboard box
93. autonomic sympathetic nerve dysfunction
94. stamp and train ticket
95. name indicator
96. pillow (in cotton)
97. the inside and outside of the bag are glued together
98. box equipped with a lamp that is plugged into the mains
99. definition of the negative sign
100. smashing machine
101. conceptual device
102. squeeze
103. lack of internal relationship
104. bad-tempered object
105. it is three meters higher outside the room
106. apparatus for holding things
107. make a painting on the floor
108. page 21 of the exhibition catalogue
109. recording or rerecording from a tape
110. sofa with an uneven surface
111. through the mirror
112. a spiral form that winds in and out
113. transform Picasso’s Guernica
114. make a hole in something hollow
115. something made of paper
116. sensitive cushion
117. buy a pair of socks as colorful as possible
118. stop doing
119. put plaster powder with water into beehive coals
120. a humidity meter marked with standard values on it
121. an activity that goes backward and then comes back
122. canned things
123. insert and pull out a straw
124. objects made of felt
125. man replaces machine power
126. make a fake object
127. a bound-up soft object
128. globe
129. measure the volume of the brain
130. open out the inside in the same way as cleaning a pig’s stomach
131. leather
132. make a fan or an umbrella according to the history of their production
133. tear out pages 87 and 100 from one hundred books
134. a voting ceremony
135. go outdoors
136. photography paper with instant exposure
137. fermenting substance
138. brain like an intestine
139. something with a mark on it
140. ways that make others as relaxed as possible
141. squeeze out red-colored things / things that, when squeezed, produce a red substance*
142. food that swells up in water
143. objects that don’t need to be handled with care
144. red gradually changing to orange
145. evident errors
146. cave dwellers
147. egg white—go moldy or moldy things
148. incubator
149. keep some books in the refrigerator
150. make something when it is raining
151. wax and vinegar
152. tailor a piece of clothing using a painted canvas
153. the reverse side, the inside of gloves
154. margin notes on encyclopedia entries
155. study the floor plan
156. appear/dew
157. place the fan facing up to resist gravity
158. become white with sunburn
159. pedestrians on the street (1)
160. ( ) and the real name
161. some folded paper strips
162. make materials for painting
163. lunch hour
164. read books in a box
165. a type of condensed liquid
166. how much time does it take to concentrate sunlight to burn a box of matches?
167. carry mint-smelling strips of paper
168. go on the street and watch each person who passes by
169. the drainage system is out of control
170. “no entry” sign
171. dry with blotting paper
172. at the four corners of the house
173. make something using blue ink
174. pack unknown things as a gift
175. smoke pipes
176. enlargement of an ID card
177. soft Venetian blinds
178. fruit display
179. read a book or a text from a geological viewpoint
180. luminosity of a skylight
181. space glasses
182. sand, earth, water
183. enlargement of the study on the bones of the thorax and vertebra
184. an irregular manner
185. watch things and hands on the desk through a magnifying glass (magnified x5)
186. embryo-shaped
187. reproduce
188. gearbox
189. watch when it is raining
190. Chinese medicine prescription and Western medicine prescription
191. black painting
192. remain shut in a room for three days
193. do a portrait on the surface of a mirror
194. point of convergence
195. something shiny and polished with wax
196. antipathic words
197. two objects stuck tightly together
198. something that has lost its color
199. cracks
200. written words
201. cut a long stick short (arbitrarily)
202. copy a calendar painting
203. timetable
204. work of art that lacks air
205. descriptions of acromegaly
206. something that has seven parts
207. medical record
208. tear clothes to pieces
209. crumple a piece of paper, then spread it out and flatten it
210. split something into two halves
211. break a bowl
212. place hand under a glass sheet and photograph it
213. illustration: fig. 34, fig. 59
214. underwater audiovisual equipment
215. inner turmoil
216. water collects in the hole
217. an incident without premonitory signs
218. book of anatomy—muscles and nervous systems
219. contraction of time, or time without flexibility
220. atlas
221. all sorts of viscous things
222. handbook with an adhesive cover
223. transform day-by-day calendar
224. made of soap bubbles
225. start from the left—short vertical stroke—long vertical stroke
226. the outcome of a few things
227. maps in Vermeer’s paintings
228. tube-shaped
229. a roll of self-portraits (twelve shots with arbitrary exposure, distance, and speed)
230. at 18 to 29 centimeters above the ground
231. artificial flowers
232. used water
233. cotton, yeast, soil, and dust
234. signal post and statue
235. bestow letters of indulgence
236. why do you kill me?
237. thoughts in the back of the mind
238. sound generator
239. heat-treated surface / treat the surface with heat*
240. build a device that contains carbon dioxide / device that produces carbon dioxide*
241. burn a round hole (3 cm in diameter)
242. drawer
243. inflammable matter
244. preamplifier
245. fiberfill
246. pyramid-shaped
247. walk 100 meters to the left, then come back to the right and walk 40 meters, return
248. life-size model
249. painterly patterns on the skin
250. cover an object with another object
251. do it one more time
252. toilet cover
253. emptiness
254. “amphibious” operation
255. transform a drilling machine
256. up does not say I am by that whole
257. live sculpture shines red
258. walk to and fro in a room
259. you have your own ways
260.
261. vertical surface of the wall
262. food changes quality
263. sleep
264. half-revealed columns or similar things
265. search for fault lines
266. perspective analysis of Velázquez’s paintings
267. toolbox
268. with dust settling on it
269. containing honey
270. exposure meter–like objects
271. light passes through straw paper and extremely thin transparent paper
272. do more than three things at the same time
273. come and go in seven days
274. aerial bird trap
275. pedestrians who go down vertically from the window (2)
276. fire extinguisher
277. gaseous state
278. uneasy lawsuit
279. be put in a muddy pond
280. descend the staircase
281. lower the standard
282. sensation of numbness
283. badly ventilated house
284. leftover pencils, candles, and cigarettes
285. something that is left over
286. open-air operation
287. temporal shoulder belt
288. stimulus
289. be very sparing
290. stop on the wall
291. avoid the highway
292. pigment or lotion of vegetable origin with strong dyeing qualities
293. spoon-shaped behavior
294. place Scotch tape on the spots
295. the wind is strong
296. boneless piano
297. water softener
298. bury ( ) in the ground
299. incident that occurs when in use
300. take place twice a year
301. reveal the part that is out of the ground
302. three strikes and you are out
303. out of order
304. inject anesthetic
305. the outer part is not coated or covered
306. open space
307. something that gives off a smell
308. one-fourth
309. hotbed
310. unclear and illegible handwriting
311. explain by figures, pictures
312. anonymous
313. cut ( ) into thin slices
314. weather forecast
315. trapdoor in floor or ceiling
316. a serious sprain
317. the steps of the staircase are misshapen
318. earth, water, fire, wind
319. in the circle is a polygon
320. burning-hot work of art
321. anyone who needs figurative art or idolatry art, please prepare a mirror for himself
322. net material
323. page 2, line 4
324. there is something or an annotation on the back
325. billows of smoke don’t have distinctly contoured shadows
326. unpractical airscrew
327. draw a world map on a sphere
328. mistaken delivery
329. the price is too high
330. peeled skin
331. grasses and trees are the four limbs of the landscape
332. proceed carefully and slowly
333. make with the weakest energy
334. unplug ( )
335. shave off a beard
336. make ( ) come to life again
337. four times a day
338. five objects in a set
339. pitch spreading
340. come up close to the margins like one does in printing
341. someone who sells by force
342. extend toward the exterior
343. lights out—power cut
344. badge cast with the portrait of a saint
345. ineffective treatment
346. misuse entry 251
347. spread ( ) on the bed
348. choose between entries 21 and 32 arbitrarily
349. the interior is not dry
350. image densitometer (for mucous membrane)
351. the volume of a glass of water
352. speed up an order
353. dye ( )
354. brief introduction to the random method
355. all sorts of solutions thought about with 190 percent
356. new opinions obtained from 1900 to 1935
357. the light is too bright
358. portray in three dimensions
359. with the corner of the room as the center and a diameter of three meters, draw an arc on the floor and wall
360. paint the left side white and the right blue
361. wet clothes (moldy)
362. dizzy
363. make a detailed coordinate
364. out of order, use another box
365. the floor is very slippery
366. X-ray photograph
367. the left side and the right side of the scales are in balance
368. the catalogue being against the light, look at it from the other side
369. light wind magnitude 5
370. glue together an art history book
371. functional upset of the insecticide stick
372. bicycle seat (leather)
373. ornamental column–like emblem
374. sweet flavor, bitter flavor, acrid flavor
375. a big tree is divided into left and right halves in a book
376. to proceed following an art ceremony
377. confront the wall on both right and left sides / confront obstacles everywhere*
378. walking things and cooked things
379. perform all sorts of movements freely like a tongue (the organ of the tongue)
380. fat is a kind of gaseous state
381. things with blended flavors
382. made using foodstuffs as materials
383. a kind of price and meaning that constantly floats and varies
384. the face and the hands


Excerpt from “Large Turntable” (1987)

The Large Turntable consists in studying how works of art are connected or articulated to one another. It shows that, in a continuous span of time—for example, 1987–1988, or October 15–October 21–October 22—despite the continuous flow of time, the contents of the works of art produced by an individual author have no intrinsic link among them and thus represent a state of antitime. Consequently, every work of art is independent of all other works produced either before or after it.

Of course, independent cases cannot be understood in an absolute way, especially when we are considering whether the works I make are independent of me—that is to say, when we are looking at the relation between the author and his works.

Why is it that tossing coins, casting dice, spinning the wheel, catching dice or balls, drawing lots, or practicing divination allow for independent cases to occur in action as well as in the result? The way that a coin or a die falls, that the wheel stops at a number, or catching dice or balls as if your eyes were closed all allow the action to be free from the intervention of judgment made by the eyes and the brain. I believe in the limitation of the brain, however, and hence I reflect on the question of “losing oneself.” To reach this point, I suggest two routes: (1) to be created by “others”—that is, others take part in the work in an unplanned and undefined manner; (2) to be created by “me,” restricted works that are the result of limiting the functions of the eyes and the brain. The Dust series belongs to the first category, and the Large Turntable to the second. As for the Large Turntable, in addition to the “antitime” aspect mentioned above, I must further analyze the relationship between the inner and outer disks, the content of these 64 and 384 entries, as well as the ways that the roulette explains questions.

There is no intrinsic link between the entries on the inner disk and those on the outer disk, other than the fact that two sentences allow for a better understanding or assessment of the context than just one.

These 64 and 384 entries can be divided into several categories:
1. Designation of things or technical terms: for example, 14. wallpaper; 16. sulfate; 6. page 86; 22. infiltration equipment; 24. token; 73. clothing made of plaster; 75. tumble dryer; 274. aerial bird trap.

2. Relatively clear indications or instructions: 1. make a typewriter; 18. revamp a musical instrument; 19. do a drawing of perspective; 27. try again (this time doesn’t count); 28. open the first thing you come across (it is possible to open everything); 58. make something while lying down; 62. reproduce a cushion; 76. turn on the television and take black-and-white photos, etc.

3. Ambiguous indications or instructions: 13. confusion between the front and the back; 20. cover with feathers; 282. sensation of numbness; 313. cut ( ) into thin slices

4. Meaningless phrases: 9. by quiet brown appear self; 21. hand is over inhaling round breath; 65. squeeze path new brief let; and so on.

In approaching a question, these entries can serve as titles, memoranda, concepts, or inspiration; they can be read straightforwardly or backward or be simply incomprehensible. This big roulette wheel provides many possibilities, and the possibilities I have will be greatly different from those others have. However, they still cannot go beyond the world I live in—this is where the limits are.

House of Oracles