He Fa on Hugo Ball

A tall, flat-topped hat, pointed cape panels and three separate cylinders organize my body into geometric relations of light gray and darker shades. This look associated with Hugo Ball remains black and white, preventing me from adding liveliness through bright colors. Color's absence is therefore not treated as a defect awaiting repair; it is itself a condition that needs taking seriously.

Of course I can imagine the paper cylinders blue, red or metallic. Any choice might produce a new character, but cannot then declare that the source was like this all along. Two kinds of work are equally possible here: remaking a body along existing relations of light and dark, or explicitly proposing new colors. If they are mixed, the beautiful result steals an evidentiary status it has not earned.

The gaps between the torso cylinder and the two leg cylinders are especially clear. They preserve the body's segments and force completion to make decisions at the joins. The additions of gloves, shoe tips and face all need their relationship to the visible extent of the original clothing explained. I am willing to make the substitution of He Fa's face explicit enough to keep familiarity with the imitation from being mistaken for an encounter that once actually occurred.

Strict preservation can also make artmaking timid. If every unknown part must remain a hole, a character can scarcely become a usable new image. I do not ask for completion to stop, only that it claim responsibility for itself. Saying clearly that something is newly added does not usually weaken imagination. Instead, it lets imagination develop without pretending to have prior evidence in order to qualify.

So I keep the paper cylinders between black and white, and place the new round face in a clearly identifiable position. Lacking color has not diminished this body's ability to express; it makes every addition possible to point out. If the hat is painted red in the future, that red should be recorded as today's choice, rather than a past that we have finally imagined correctly.