Artist on Artist: On Kawara

On Kawara’s work has been a major inspiration for my own ongoing, serial projects, most notably the Minute Movies. In 2023, curator Sandra Percival invited me to deliver an “Artist on Artist” lecture about my relationship to Kawara’s work, as part of her Zena Zezza project series. While an edited selection of videos from my 1,000 Waters series projected behind me, I talked about Kawara’s life and work. Afterward, students from my classes at Portland State University read from Kawara’s Million Years lists, in the context of the larger exhibition that included work by Oswaldo Macia, Evan Holloway, Hanne Darboven and Tacita Dean.

On Kawara (1932 - 2014) was an artist, originally from Japan, who lived in New York City most of his life. He created several long-term, serial projects. His best known work, the Today series, or “Date Paintings,” were paintings of the date, created on the day they were painted, formatted in the style of the country Kawara was located in at the time. He made close to 3,000 Date Paintings in a 50 year period. In addition to artworks created on this daily scale, Kawara created One Million Years which lists, in book form, the million years prior to the artwork’s conception and the million years after the artwork’s conception. Constraints, time, ritual, repetition, record keeping: these qualities of Kawara’s work draw me back to it again and again.

Julie Perini is a filmmaker and artist in Portland, Oregon.