ORR

Octavio Abundez

Of Life

The works and studies presented in this show belong to a work in progress.
The format and nature of the show are meant to offer a deep glimpse into that work and ask for your help.
The general idea of the project is to create a list of the most decisive/core
events in our lives. The matrix for the plot of each and every one of our lives.
From that list a painterly project will come to birth.
What I came to realize, which is rather obvious once it is thought, is that the events which make up the plot(s) repeat every so often and are not infinite.
These events have been happening and will continue to happen. These particular stories to which we are bound build the whole of History. But since they are our own the relation established towards them is, of course, personal.
To constrain the work within a realistic and doable frame I settled for a couple of absurd parameters;
The total number of events will be 1,024
The whats remain, the whos, the whys and the hows will be left out.
Without these parameters the idea to classify life’s most important events might convey an infinite (which it is) set of events. Such a work would be impossible to write, impossible to paint, and though it is possible to think about it in general terms, it is rather impossible to think about the amount of detail the All would require. It would be the equivalent of being an all knowing God and/or holding an infinite book that contains the Complete History of the Universe.
However absurd or hard this idea sounds, attempts will be made, and attempts are being made to come up with a classification system well-grounded enough to resist critic.
Let’s take a gruesome example.
Murder.
There are two main possibilities. Either you murder someone or you get murdered.
Simultaneously there is a component of will and volition involved in your murder. Either it is premeditated or it is accidental.
If you are murdered there are two types of characters. You get murdered by a stranger or you get murdered by someone you know. The latter possibility can be further subdivided into; acquaintances, business partners, friends, lovers, your own blood, and/or your partner. Or a combination of any of them, including someone you know and the stranger (a murder for hire).
In all of these scenarios and their combinations the end result is exactly the same. Your demise.
How you take it in the final moments, how you feel about it, the way in which you are killed, the time it takes you to die, the location, the hour, and all other considerations are what make up the wealth and infinity of life.
It is not the same if your lover slits your throat with a dagger that has been recently acquired at the market or if the dagger is your or her family heirloom. It is not the same if there is a full moon or not or whether the scent of jasmine is present or not or whether you read or not, and enjoyed it or not, any book, let’s say “One Thousand and One Nights” and which edition it was. It is not the same if the dagger is clean, or a thin layer of dust lies on its blade as it
enters your neck or whether you are awake or asleep or what thought was cruising through your mind or whether you were having a nightmare and what the nightmare was about.
All the particularities of our lives, infinite in probability and outcomes, are an impossibility of thought. Though this is a beautiful thought to entertain and to explore to a certain degree of detail.
For this single plot element (being murdered), a number of slots in the list will be taken.
And so on, and so forth. So, that’s the idea, and this is where I ask you for help. I would appreciate very much if you could share with me;
What event could you propose, you think has been left out, is not as important?
What other consideration about the works presented here would you care to share?
The final list of the events is still under work. It is being socialized in many
ways. It is being checked by and discussed with health specialists, critics, artists, doctors, philosophers, lawyers, strangers, etc. Since this work is about the “all” it is impossible that I, with my narrow life experience, would be able to think, see and feel life from a multitude of perspectives.
If you would like to take a note home as symbolic interchange please do.

Octavio Abundez

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