Gallery Entry
Myriad, Minus One
By Heyi Qin · CN
In the 1630s a single tulip bulb could cost as much as a house, because it was rare. In 2018 Anna Ridler photographed and labelled ten thousand tulips by hand to train a model. Today a model can produce a thousand flawless tulips in a minute. Abundance has moved from the flower to the image; what is scarce now is the decision to stop at one. This is a still life in the language of Delft in the 1660s: a dim room, a leaded window, a dark oak table. The table is covered with sheets of small square pictures of tulips, and almost every square has been struck through with a red cross. In an earthenware jug stands one real tulip, and it is not a perfect one: overblown, fringed, its head hanging, petals already fallen onto the paper. Among all the crosses there is exactly one circle. Inside it is the same drooping tulip that stands in the jug. A tool can offer a myriad of options, and it can even draw the circle when asked. It does not care which one stays. Deciding what to ask for, refusing the flawless flower, and choosing the one that bends is the part that remained mine.