12 CHANCE
SURRENDERING CONTROL
Artists are usually interested in control, the skilled and thoughtful manipulation of a medium. But the actions of chance have always played some role in art making, and in the last one hundred years some artists have embraced uncertainties for a variety of purposes.
APPROACHES
• Useful accident
The handling of any physical medium incorporates a certain element of chance. The painter can never be quite sure about how a particular wet brushstroke will look, and the sculptor can never guarantee exactly what is going to happen with the next strike of his or her chisel. In a sense the artist is always a little bit in the hands of chance and will negotiate many small “accidents” during the creation of a work. For instance, ...
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