and Gallery Foksal (Warszawa) Exhibition
An Oak Tree
- Question:
- To begin with, could you describe this work?
- Answer:
- Yes, of course. What I've done is change a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree without altering the accident of the glass of water.
- Q:
- The accidents?
- A:
- Yes. The colour, feel, weight, size...
- Q:
- Do you mean that the glass of water is a symbol of an oak tree?
- A:
- No. It's not a symbol. I've hanged the physical substance of the glass of water into that of an oak tree.
- Q:
- It looks like a glass of water...
- A:
- Of course it does. I didn't change its appearance. But it's not a glass of water. It's an oak tree.
- Q:
- Can you prove what you claim to have done?
- A:
- Well, yes and no. I claim to have maintained the physical form of the glass of water and, as you can see, I have. However, as one normally looks for evidence of physical change in terms of altered form, no such proof exist.
- Q:
- Haven't you simply called this glass of water an oak tree?
- A:
- Absolutely not. It is not a glass of water anymore. I have changed its actual substance. It would no longer be accurate to call it a glass of water. One could call it anything one wished but that would not alter the fact that it is an oak tree.
- Q:
- Isn't this just a case of the emperor's new clothes?
- A:
- No. With the emperor's new clothes people claimed to see something which wasn't there because they felt they should. I would be very surprised if anyone told me they saw an oak tree.
- Q:
- Was it difficult to effect the change?
- A:
- No effort at all. But it took me years of work before i realised I could do it.
- Q:
- When precisely did the glass of water become an oak tree?
- A:
- When I put water in the glass.
- Q:
- Does this happen every time you fill a glass with water?
- A:
- No, of course not. Only when I intend to change it into an oak tree.
- Q:
- Then intention causes the change?
- A:
- I would say that it precipitates the change.
- Q:
- You don't know how you do it?
- A:
- It contradicts what feel I know about cause and effect.
- Q:
- It seems to me you're claiming to have worked a miracle. Isn't that the case?
- A:
- I'm flattered that you think so.
- Q:
- But aren't you the only person who can do something like this?
- A:
- How could I know?
- Q:
- Could you teach others to do it?
- A:
- No. It's not something one can teach.
- Q:
- Do you consider that changing the glass of water into an oak constitutes an artwork?
- A:
- Yes.
- Q:
- What precisely is the artwork? The glass of water?
- A:
- There is no glass of water any more.
- Q:
- The process change?
- A:
- There is no process involved in the change.
- Q:
- The oak tree?
- A:
- Yes. The oak tree.
- Q:
- But the oak tree only exist in the mind.
- A:
- No. The actual oak tree is physically present but in the form of the glass of water. As the glass of water was a particular glass of water, the oak tree is also particular. To conceive the category "oak tree" or to picture a particular oak tree is not to understand and experience what appears to be a glass of water as an oak tree. Just as it is imperceivable, it is also inconceivable.
- Q:
- Did the particular oak tree exist somewhere else before it took the form of the glass water?
- A:
- No. This particular oak tree did not exist previously. I should also point out that it does not and will ever have any other form but that of a glass of water.
- Q:
- How long will it continue to be an oak tree?
- A:
- Until I change it.
© Prototype created by Marzenna and Juliusz Donajski's Digital Gallery
