Maximum effort, minimal result

Deja Vu by Francis Alys
The Story of Deception at MoMA PS1

I saw this on the front page of the Weekend Arts section of the New York Times (you may need to pay for access to content if you aren't a subscriber) and was immediately enchanted by the image. Weird, wonderful and scary at the same time, I like the use of color and how it has been scraped. When i went to the website, i was amazed at the depth and variety of his work.




Left, a painting from “When Faith Moves Mountains” (2002), in which Francis Alÿs had 500 volunteers with shovels move a giant Peruvian sand dune 10 centimeters. Right, a photograph from the same task, quickly undone by nature.


I like his axiom "maximum effort, minimal result" which to me also means "strive to reach a degree of mastery where the end result looks effortless".