In 2004, when I was Curator at South London Gallery, I had the epic task of realising On Kawara's 'Reading One Million Years' in Trafalgar Square. 'One Million Years' is a ten volume book of dates, separated into the books of the Past - 998,031 BC to 1969 AD - and books of the Future - 1980 AD to 1,001,980 AD. It was the first time the work had been presented as a continuous reading, for seven days and nights, which involved mobilising a team of people to read aloud for two hours each, in pairs, one woman and one man. I remember one of the readers telling me how conscious she was that each number had been individually hand typed - the work was begun in 1969 - and how, for that reason, she had given each a slightly different emphasis when speaking it aloud. I also remember receiving emails from people who had unexpectedly encountered the work, telling me what a profound and moving experience it had been for them. It had been for me too. As had a simultaneous work which wasn't publicised at the time and which On Kawara insisted take place at the same time as the readings, a work that was hugely meaningful for him; the placing of his 'date' paintings in the Reception class of a primary school. It was important to him that this work was encountered by very young children, aged four and five, in an environment in which they were embarking on learning but were still outside formal school curriculum. The children hadn't been informed that one day they would arrive in school to find these new objects inserted into their usual surroundings. The paintings were simply left there to be absorbed, for a duration, without explanation. In 'One Million Years' On Kawara had dedicated the books of the Past to "all those who have lived and died" and the Future "for the last one". I was very sad to hear yesterday that On Kawara had passed away, aged 81. 

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