Still Alive

"Belying the candidness of the phrase "I Am Still Alive," these messages are deeply calculated missives that allowed the artist to manage his professional relationships at a level of removal that would normally be considered overtly dispassionate. For Kawara, living as an artistis shown to be iterative and communal-a process that occurs through assertion, by confirming things will go on as before to hold an audience's attention."

"In the face of his own mortality, a famously private social life, and a rigid economy of means throughout his projects, Kawara seems to fight against fading away by insulating himself within a wide network of collaborators. Fittingly, the majority of the marks on the telegrams are addresses, dates, and receipts of their sending-the "I Am Still Alive" messages often struggle to stand out beside the evidence of their medium's transit."

Turquoise, an apartment gallery in Bed-Stuy, mounted a two-part exhibition of On Kawara's "I Am Still Alive" telegram series, ca. 1969–2000, displaying telegrams sent worldwide. The telegrams reiterated the titular phrase as deliberate professional gestures that managed relationships with curators, museum directors, and art-world figures. The messages functioned as both assertion of continued practice and an appeal not to be forgotten, combining calculated detachment with quiet vulnerability. The physical telegrams emphasize transit—addresses, dates, and receipts—often overwhelming the phrase itself. Kawara's method shows artistic life as iterative and communal, sustained through repeated, networked communication.

Read at Artforum