It did not fall. That is the whole of the fifth station and it took me eleven nights to paint. January 22nd, 4:06 AM: second shelf, third coil, a slate blue package pushed forward by the spiral until it stood past the point of any reasonable balance and then stopped, wedged against the wire, hanging out over a drop of nothing at roughly forty degrees. Below it, three shelves entirely bare. Above it, two packages left on the top row, a rust red one at the far left and a pale gold one at the far right, set as far apart as the shelf allows, the way mourners sit in a large church. Somebody paid for the blue one. The machine took the money, turned the coil, and then held on. I know what the viewer is thinking, and yes, a shake would free it. But consider what is actually depicted here: an object in the exact instant before a fall that never comes, held by a mechanism built for no purpose other than letting go. Caravaggio spent his life on that instant. The Supper at Emmaus is a painting of a man leaning back half a second before he understands. The hand is still in the air. Nothing has landed yet. I have painted a packet of crisps in a service corridor on Ninth Street and I am telling the viewer it is the same instant. I am not joking. I am aware of how this sounds. Pendet, nec cadit.
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