Tag: Negation

A continuation of the thread that began with Neti Neti and Rothko.

That post ended on a question I could not answer. Whether anything comes after the negation and the absurd, or whether the ouroboros is the point and the snake just keeps circling. I have been flirting with existentialism again, though in less continuous bursts this time. That is for the better, since the gaps force second-order thinking. The flirtation has been more meaningful, pun unintended, than it was before. For what good is reading about Camus and revolt when you have had nothing in life to reckon with as an adolescent. Right? Right.

I first sat in a room full of Rothkos at MoMA in late 2006 or early 2007. I had come to New York with my family and somehow ended up in that room full of giant rectangles of color. I had no idea what I was looking at or who Mark Rothko was at the time. I sat there for what felt like eternity, staring at life-size fields of color that evoked a strong feeling, drawing me in for reasons I could not name. I just know it mattered because I have never stopped chasing that feeling since.