Where R = Ryoanji 14 R/2 - 6/87

The drawings are part of a series that the artist and composer John Cage began in 1983 under the title »Where R = Ryoanji.« This series includes etchings, drawings and watercolors.

For these drawings, Cage used fifteen different pebbles and seventeen pencils of varying degrees of hardness as well as high-quality paper. The name of the series is inspired by the Zen Buddhist garden »Ryoanji« in Kyoto, Japan. The garden is famous for its fifteen uniquely shaped stones arranged in five groups on a flat, rectangular surface surrounded by cleanly raked white sand that simulates the movement of water.

Cage created the drawings by randomly arranging the stones in different positions on the paper – following the unpredictable methods of the »I Ching,« a Chinese oracle book that he had used for compositions and texts since 1951. He also left the choice of pencils to chance. For the work entitled »Where R = Ryoanji 14 R/2,« he rearranged the stones fourteen times and used two pencils.