Madeline Gins


Madeline Helen Arakawa Gins was an American artist, architect and poet.

Life

Gins was born in New York City and studied physics and Eastern philosophy at Barnard College.
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, Reversible Destiny Lofts, parks and plans for housing complexes and neighborhoods.
She and Arakawa "lost their life savings" to the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme.

Death

On March 18, 2010, Arakawa died, after a week of hospitalization. Gins would not state the cause of death. "This mortality thing is bad news," she stated. She planned to redouble efforts to prove "aging can be outlawed."
On January 8, 2014, Gins died of cancer at age 72.

Reversible Destiny Foundation

Arakawa and Gins cofounded the Reversible Destiny Foundation, an organization dedicated to the use of architecture to extend the human lifespan. They have co-authored books, including Reversible Destiny, which is the catalogue of their Guggenheim exhibition, Architectural Body, and Making Dying Illegal, and have designed and built residences and parks, including the Reversible Destiny Lofts, Bioscleave House, and the Site of Reversible Destiny–Yoro.

Works

Architectural works by Arakawa and Gins

Books