Almost Nothing / Almost Everything I
2020, pen and ink on Saunders Waterford 425gsm paper, each 30 × 30cm (40 × 40cm framed). Photographer: Document Photography.
Almost Nothing II
Almost Everything II
Almost Nothing II (detail)
Almost Everything II (detail)
This diptych extends the logic of its counterpart Almost Nothing / Almost Everything I through a reduced formal structure. Each drawing consists of a single horizontal line of numerals, written by hand. Almost Nothing II begins with a zero and a decimal point, followed by a sequence of zeros interrupted by a single 1, and continues beyond, approaching zero without ever reaching it. In contrast, Almost Everything II begins with a 1 followed by a sequence of zeros, expanding toward an immeasurable magnitude.
Together, the two drawings establish a tension between two limits: one approaching nothing, the other approaching everything. Though materially and formally similar, their structures diverge at the decimal point, producing radically different scales from nearly identical means.
Almost Nothing / Almost Everything II, installed at Dominik Mersch Gallery for Approaching Zero, 2020.