Madeline Gins

Who was Madeline Gins?

Madeline Helen Arakawa Gins was an American artist, architect and poet. Gins met her partner and later husband, artist Shusaku Arakawa, in 1963. One of their earlier collaborations, "The Mechanism of Meaning", was shown in its entirety at the 1997 Guggenheim exhibition, Arakawa/Gins – Reversible Destiny/We Have Decided Not to Die.

In 1987, as a means of financing the design and construction of works of architecture, Arakawa and Gins founded the Reversible Destiny Foundation. The Foundation actively collaborates with practitioners in a wide range of disciplines including, experimental biology, neuroscience, quantum physics, experimental phenomenology, and medicine. Their architectural projects included residences, parks and plans for housing complexes and neighborhoods.