Arakawa, a Japanese-born...

...conceptual artist and designer, died Tuesday at age 73. (It's usually a red flag when people go by only one name.)

He and his wife, Madeline Gins (who had two names):

...explored ideas about mortality by creating buildings meant to stop aging and preclude death.

Huh?

“This mortality thing is bad news,” Ms. Gins said by phone from her studio on Houston Street. She said she would redouble her efforts to prove that “aging can be outlawed.”

It's true.

Arthur Danto, the art critic and philosopher, who had known Arakawa for nearly 40 years, said, “He really felt they were doing the most important kind of work, to overcome death.” But, Mr. Danto said, “How that was going to happen was never clear, to anyone outside Madeline and him.”

Now that Arakawa has died it must be even less clear.