Circles

“Circles” is an installation: two blank canvases, side by side. One is sealed in clear acrylic and hangs straight. Printed on it are four endorsements, each with a colored stamp, from a fictional curator, prize chair, editor and critic. The other has no case and no praise, and hangs crooked, slipping from its hook, about to fall. A blank canvas can hold anything: any subject, any form, any viewer’s reading. That is its freedom and its trap. Where meaning is slight, we read in more than is there, imposing significance instead of revealing it. The only difference between the two is a few lines of praise and a few stamps. Recognition and access decide what is valued. Even with sincere intentions, we reach only what our circles allow. Correcting one bias quietly creates another. Who decides what matters? “Circles” doubts that artists and researchers should. Rather than tell people what counts, both should invite them to find and value meaning in their own lives.