Description
Dim to perceive yet fascinating to ponder, Friedman began obsessively mapping out complex systems. Not to understand them (impossible), but to reveal something in quantity. "What interests me is my inability to process everything I'm confronted with and the idea of the whole."9 From 1992 to 1995, Friedman transcribed every word from a standard English dictionary onto a 36 inch by 36 inch sheet of paper (Everything, 1992-1995). The words are spread out heterogeneously, like paint splatters, mapping a textured blue landscape. The words represent a total system (the English language) defined in a space (the paper). The piece alludes again to Friedman's circular logic. A conclusion never departs from the work itself — "The explaining becomes the object [art] as opposed to the indicator"10 — that is, the conclusion becomes the question.
