Roots and Relations

• William Franke Center for Apophatic Thought and Culture
• Drew University, Art Department, and Caspersen School of Graduate Studies
• Vision Lab
• University of Illinois, Visual Arts Research
• Soft Data/Base

Project / Editorial Team: Merel Visse, William Franke, Ryan Woodring, Béatrice Machet, Sarah Travis, Enaiê Azambuja, Sarah Tarkany, Kythe Heller, Cailtin Gilson, Chelle Stearns.

Web Design and Accessibility: Avianna Miller

In the apophatic.art project, we're also discovering what it means to work together apophatically. Picture a door that's never quite closed. Or a table with one more chair pulled up than there are people to fill it, just in case. It’s like a room that keeps rearranging itself so no one who would love to join ends up standing outside it.

Non-hierarchical doesn't mean no one leads. It means the leading moves, passes hand to hand. We don't rank the guests or the chef. We don't even like it. What we like is generosity, care and gentleness — though gentle here doesn’t equal softness. It can be firm and undemanding at once, a hand that holds without gripping.

If only we could stop asking who belongs, and start asking instead what it would take to never have to ask.