Thought pronounces physical space in a sculptural situation. The architectural articulation of that pronouncement has been the basis of my sculpture-based practice since graduating from art college in Melbourne at the end of 1988. In the polaroid taken in Düsseldorf in 1995, I’m sitting on the floor, knackered, having worked three days and two nights without sleep to set up my work. That’s after building the work’s components, by hand. The painter Ingrid Weber and gallerist Thomas Taubert are trying to squeeze themselves out of view. The image, nevertheless, is of To make a work of thoughtful art, 1995, in which the process of a single thought exhausts the entire space of a room in four stages. The fifth completes the work when its first passer-by writes the date and time.

1. From the square above cut out a thought into a shape and lean it next to number 1.
2. From this thought cut out its anger and place it on the plinth at number 2.
3. From this anger cut out its love and place it at number 3.
4. From this love cut out its understanding and return it to where the thought had first been taken, at number 4.
5. Now ask a passer-by the time [21:57] and the date [Freitag.13.10].

Gail Hastings, 2025