Jiro Takamatsu (b. 1936 – d.1998).
Hamm: I once knew a madman who thought the end of the world had come. He was a painter – and engraver. I had a great fondness for him. I used to go and see him, in the asylum. I’d take him by the hand anddrag hi to the window. Look! There! All that rising corn! And there! Look! The sails of the herring fleet! All that loveliness! [Pause.]
He’d snatch away his hand and go back into his corner. Appalled. All he had seen was ashes. [Pause.] He alone had been spared. [Pause.] Forgotten. [Pause.] It appears the case is … was not so … so unusual.
Clove: A madman? When was that?
Hamm: Oh way back, way back, you weren’t in the land of the living.
Clov: God be with the days!
(Text: Samuel Beckett, Endgame)
(Jiro Takamatsu: From Shadow to Compound, exhibited at Fergus McCaffrey, New York)
THE NOOY 