Christopher Martin People Get Frustrated..., 2025

Christopher Martin People Get Frustrated..., 2025
Ink on paper + wood
Unique
14 x 11.5 x 17 in

Christopher Martin’s People Get Frustrated... (2025) captures the artist’s ongoing exploration of perception, expectation, and acceptance through minimalist precision and conceptual wit. The piece presents a white scroll punctured by a black arrow, inscribed with the phrase:
“People get frustrated with stories that have no conclusion.”

At once humorous and philosophical, the statement becomes a mirror for human impatience — our need for resolution, clarity, and closure in a world that rarely provides them. By impaling this thought with an arrow, Martin transforms a simple observation into a meditation on surrender: the realization that incompleteness is not failure, but the natural condition of existence.

Visually, the composition exemplifies Martin’s disciplined aesthetic. The monochrome palette, stark typography, and physical gesture of the arrow establish a dialogue between tension and stillness, permanence and fragility. The scroll, curling slightly under its own weight, suggests movement — as if the message continues unfolding beyond the limits of the page.

Conceptually, People Get Frustrated... aligns with Martin’s broader practice of using text as both object and mantra. The sentence is declarative yet open-ended, echoing the very frustration it describes. It invites viewers to confront their own discomfort with ambiguity, and to recognize the beauty of unresolved narratives — whether in art, life, or thought.

Ultimately, People Get Frustrated... distills a universal truth into elegant simplicity. In Martin’s hands, the arrow becomes a symbol of insight — piercing through certainty to reveal the quiet wisdom of not knowing how the story ends.