La Flecha de Zenón (Zeno's Arrow)
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.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.
Artwork Details
- Title: La Flecha de Zenón (Zeno's Arrow)
- Artist: Jorge Macchi (Argentinian, born Buenos Aires, 1963)
- Artist: David Oubiña (Argentinian, born Buenos Aires, 1964)
- Date: 1992
- Medium: Animation
Duration: 1 min 20 sec.
DVD, edition of four - Dimensions: Variable dimensions
- Classification: Variable Media
- Credit Line: Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Blanton Museum Purchase, 2003.91
- Rights and Reproduction: © Jorge Macchi. Photograph Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, Austin
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art