Perseverance

Perseverance word across plants in front of ladder with words on it
I came across “Selections from the Synopsis of Categories” in Metro Hall by Micah Lexier recently. Installed in 1992. What a strange art installation, my first thought. What’s it about? my second.

Ladders of words. Ladders of categories if we go by the title. The word that jumped out at me: perseverance. Above change. Below sequence. Are these words random? The more I studied the ladders of words, I came to see that some jibed with each other obviously. Others did not. The longer you look, the more the art converges from random words on random ladders to each ladder being a category, each step a word in that category. Are their placements meaningful or random?

This is like a synopsis of life. The more time you spend paying attention, listening, observing, taking in, the more you see and understand, the fewer errors in judgement and perception you make.

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