Shusaku Arakawa (荒川 修作, Arakawa Shūsaku, July 6, 1936 – May 18, 2010) was a Japanese conceptual artist and architect. He had a personal and artistic partnership with the writer and artist Madeline Gins that spanned more than four decades. Later in his life, Arakawa and Gins were more commonly associated with architectural projects aimed toward the longevity of human life expectancy.荒川 修作（あらかわ しゅうさく、1936年7月6日 - 2010年5月19日）は、日本の美術家である。愛知県名古屋市出身。2010年5月19日、ニューヨーク市内の病院にて死去。73歳没。また、2014年1月8日、妻のマドリン・ギンズが死去。世界の著名な哲学者や分子生物学者に注目され2005年にはパリ第10大学で、2008年にはペンシルベニア大学で荒川修作+マドリン・ギンズをめぐる国際カンファレンスが開催。国内の諸々の講演会等においては宮崎駿、養老孟司、茂木健一郎、利根川進他、多くの分野の人々との場において芸術・科学・哲学などにわたる自身の深遠な知見に基づき際立って独特な印象を残す言い回しで語りかけた。近年ではテレビ・雑誌・webなどのメディアへの登場も少なくなく、出身小学校で授業を行うNHKの教育番組『課外授業 ようこそ先輩』に出演した際は、本人の記憶違いから出身校の名古屋市立御劔小学校ではなく同市立瑞穂小学校で収録が行われたが、局を批判する声にも「非難する方がおかしい。私は自分の名前もよく忘れる」と意に介さなかった。
Beginning in 1963, he collaborated with fellow artist, architect, and poet Madeline Gins on the research project The Mechanism of Meaning, which was completed by 1973. This research project and its subsequent architectural projects - both built and unbuilt ones - formed the basis of the 1997 Arakawa + Gins: Reversible Destiny exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum SoHo (the accompanying book of the same title remains the most comprehensive collection of their work, and it incorporates the whole of the Arakawa/Gins book, The Mechanism of Meaning).
The panels appear as a constellation of views concerning the nature of meaning that may be characterized as "holistic" or as entailments of a holistic view concerning meaning. To date, two editions of The Mechanism of Meaning have been made and many of the panels incorporate collaged elements. In the years since Arakawa's and Gins's deaths, there have been multiple legal disputes regarding ownership of The Mechanism of Meaning between the Architectural Body Research Foundation and the Reversible Destiny Foundation.
