Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
La Flecha de Zenón (Zeno's Arrow)
Jorge Macchi Argentinian
David Oubiña Argentinian
Not on view
Jorge Macchi and David Oubiña’s Zeno’s Arrow is a humorous meditation on the dichotomy paradox, one of several mathematical and metaphysical conundrums put forth by Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea. According to Zeno, an object traveling toward a target will never arrive at its destination, since the distance between the object and the target is always finite and is therefore always divisible by two. Here, Zeno’s paradox informs the artists’ representation of infinitude. The animation takes the form of a countdown whose numbers gradually decrease from ten to one. At the exact moment we expect the "real" video to begin, however, the numbers start to subdivide. Eventually, the line of digits grows so long it disappears, continuing indefinitely, or so we are led to think.
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