ma

Before I left the States to live in Japan in 1979, I had the opportunity to see a thrilling and unforgettable exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York based on a not often talked about a Japanese concept called MA. The architect Arata Isozaki designed the exhibit.

He painstakingly built habitats to show the viewer Japan’s take on MA. It was exhilarating to see how he managed to make an ethereal concept so concrete. He even had rooms built within the museum. It sold me on wanting to visit the (is)land of MA.

What is MA? Listen closely as I whisper, ‘It’s a little known secret that keeps the universe moving within it’s gravitational orb.’

Here is a Japanese take on using natural air ventilation to cool in summer yet keep the heat contained during the cold, drafty winter months. This the Japanese way of cooling and heating before the advent of either air conditioning or central heating. This vestibule or long corridor between the outdoors and the interior rooms works as natural insulation.

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In the west we speak of MA as “negative space”. I don’t think this term is adequate although it is often used in art and sculpture. It is the space that exists in and around and even through objects. Did you know the most seemingly solid objects are porous? Metal included.

MA is the space that contains, supports and envelopes any object. Essentially it is MA that grants an object the right to exist.

MA is the air inside the vase that gives it its shape. It is also the air that surrounds the vase and supports its shape. 

MA is present in the placement of these words on paper and each letter having their negative and positive space to form the letter. If not for this variation everything would be either solid white or solid black.

MA gives each letter its shape and each word its meaning. And then it connects the many words to make a sentence, a paragraph, a page, and after all a complete story.

Mandy Patinkin, a singer and actor on the TV show Homeland said a Palestinian musician he was playing with referred to the native tuning of his instrument as being “the sound between the black and white keys.”

I was invited to a friend’s summer home in Sag Harbor to make her home ready for selling. The living room and side room were small, narrow spaces and clearly the furniture she bought for them was too big and overstuffed looking for the areas. She bought the pieces because she loved them and didn’t consider where they were going. No measurements were taken and no sketches were made.

We could effectively rearrange the living room pieces but when it came to the side room there were simply too many overstuffed chairs in a room not much bigger than some peoples walk in closet. She realized this but had a hard time letting them go.

Arranging furniture in a room is akin to sculpture - we are aware of the proportions of the room in relation to the objects we are placing in it.

A friend who is an interior designer and had been an assistant to Diana Vreeland calls my studio "The Zen Hotel", now just The Zen. When I asked her what made it Zen-like, both in it’s past and most recent incarnation, she said, “It’s because of the uncluttered space. Space which gives you room to breath and to think.”

Paul Horn said of Miles Davis

"He was a master of space, the space around the notes." 

Here it what Richard Serra, the sculptor, said about space as he walked us through he sculpture Belamy in an interview with Charlie Rose. 

"…on these pieces it's very also difficult to know when you're on the inside and what's on the outside. Here we're on the inside of the outside but we're also on the outside of the inside. Space has become my subject and it's basically what informs how people think about what I'm doing. The steel is kind of a way of  holding the space, or directing the space or compressing the space or allowing you to feel the grasp of the space. So the steel in the space or the object in the void become one and the same. So I don't think of space as being something apart from the condition of sculpture. It's one and the same. Basically that is my subject. I use steel to organize space."

This trip was so meaningful to Serra that he goes on to say,

"So when I came back to build a piece for Pulitzer I had to deal with 3 or 4 acres of land and find a way of dealing with the elevations rises and falls and holding a view, a meaningful view of that landscape as you walked it that would be comprehensible to a viewer. So things weren't just indiscriminately placed. That being my first landscape piece probably remains still remains one of my most abstract pieces ever done. Maybe one of my best efforts."

the moment contains calm

Here are some techniques I’ve found helpful and maybe you will too.

I like to take a few minutes a day to walk. Away from the clutter of images and messages that has become my life. Walk in nature, meditate, do yoga, make music, dance or do anything you love…dare I say sex? (Which can be a whole other subject.)

Recently I read in a prayer for the Sabbath (abstinence from work by religious Jews from Friday night at sundown until Saturday evening at sundown) at a beautiful neighborhood synagogue called Central Synagogue

When stressed, I take a moment to listen to the ambient sound. To become aware of my breathing. Breathing in, breathing out and the pause between the breath. The moment contains calm.

Musicians and artists make it their business to be aware of this special concept. John Cage called it the space between the notes. He even had the audacity to make concerts out of this “silence”. No music. Giving the audience the opportunity to listen to and become aware of ambient sound. Can we imagine a cough, or a sneeze, or maybe the shuffling of papers from the program? The piece was called 4’ 33” because this “performance” would last for 4 minutes, 33 seconds. 

Each of the 3 artists below worked in the mid 20 century and had an ability to reach into the space around their material to let their work breathe. Below right is a sculptural piece by Lippold which John Cage, the musician lived with in his loft.

repetition and rhythm

Another technique I have found useful when trying to find the right answer or even to put myself back to sleep, is to shut my mind off from its constant dialogue. I cease my inner chatter by going back to a time before I could use language. If I go back that far, which can be in the blink of an eye, I can’t hold onto a thought.

This rhythm is what makes spaces, places and people sing. It is the intervals, the beats and the syncopation. It is the repetition.

The intangible MA seems to be tied to rhythm. There is a rhythm in our heartbeat and a rhythm to our breathing. Not coming from a musical family my first sense of creating rhythm happened walking by an iron gate and moving my fingers along it’s repetitive spikes.