WORDS MATTER the Work of Lawrence Weiner Kathryn Chiong
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WORDS MATTER The Work Of Lawrence Weiner Kathryn Chiong Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2013 © 2013 Kathryn Chiong All rights reserved Abstract WORDS MATTER: The Work of Lawrence Weiner Kathryn Chiong This dissertation explores the practice of contemporary artist Lawrence Weiner. From 1968 onwards, Weiner has presented his work using language and, as such, the artist is historically regarded as one of the pioneering practitioners of Conceptual art. The artist himself categorically refuses that designation, preferring to focus on the material aspects of his work. Nevertheless, his oeuvre has been largely received in terms of a predominantly linguistic intervention. Craig Dworkin encapsulates this position, when in discussing the Conceptual wager of Weiner’s statements he writes: “Having tested the propositions that the art object might be nominal, linguistic, invisible, and on a par with its abstract initial description, the next step was to venture that it could be dispensed with altogether.” By focusing equally on the linguistic and material aspects of Weiner’s practice, this dissertation argues, conversely, that Weiner’s work is primarily an object strategy, and not a dematerialized linguistic presentation. The first part of this discussion deals with Weiner’s ground-breaking work from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s, analyzing the full implications of Weiner’s extraordinary decision to present materials through language. Close comparisons are drawn with the profoundly materialist practices of contemporary artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Carl Andre, Richard Serra and Robert Smithson. Weiner’s use of language is also distinguished from the text-based works of Conceptual artists Joseph Kosuth and Douglas Huebler, problematizing the degree to which Weiner’s statements can stand as an exemplar of postmodern textuality, inasmuch as their referential content remains of primary consequence. Several chapters of the dissertation focus on drawings, and in particular the artist’s notebooks, an aspect of Weiner’s practice that has remained largely unstudied. Crucially, the notebooks present a model of thinking which is wholly corporeal as opposed to purely analytical. Furthermore, they raise the problem of the visual in relation to a body of work that has been credited with the suppression of a traditional (optical) aesthetic. In being conceived by the artist as “maps,” Weiner’s drawings also invite an analysis of spatial considerations, and are thus linked to the artist’s own designation of his work, not as art in general, but specifically as sculpture. Finally, the notebooks, like Weiner’s films, practically dissolve the categories of reality and fiction. Indeed, Weiner himself would insist that every presentation of his essentially “realist” work is nonetheless inherently “theatrical.” One of the long-standing criticisms of Conceptual art was that while it made aspects of circulation and distribution part of the work - thereby testing the limits of institutional constraint and expanding art’s potential to engage in collective reception - it failed to achieve truly democratic access, in large part by neglecting issues of desire. Thus, Conceptual art’s promise of collective accessibility was purportedly foreclosed by an art whose theoretical propositions lacked a democratic content. In closely considering the generic content of Weiner’s work, this dissertation develops a picture not only of the concrete relationship between word and thing, but of the ways in which Weiner uses signs (drawings, text, films) to “objectify” desire, demonstrating that his “sculptures” must be seen as both conceptual and sensual, fully immersed in politicized questions of imaginary and bodily experience. TABLE OF CONTENTS List Of Illustrations ii Acknowledgements xv Dedication xvii Introduction 1 I THE RUPTURE OF A SURFACE (language + materials) 30 II THE TRACE OF AN IDEA (concept + object) 82 III PARADIGMS SUITABLE FOR DAILY USE (notebooks + drawings) 125 IV RED SAILS ON THE SUNSET (drawings + design) 163 V MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (drawings + mapping) 192 VI HERE THERE & EVERYWHERE (sculpture + site) 221 VII THE TRAVEL OF MARGARET MARY (reality + fiction) 260 Illustrations 289 Bibliography 475 i LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. Lawrence Weiner, Statements, 1968 2a. Lawrence Weiner, THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF, installation at Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 2012 2b. Lawrence Weiner, THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF THE MIDDLE OF, installation at Hugenot House, Kassel, 2012 3. Marcel Broodthaers, Pense-Bête, 1964 4. Lawrence Weiner, AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (1988), installation at Kunstverein Heilbronn, 2000 5. Robert Morris, Self-Portrait EEG, 1963 6. Lawrence Weiner, AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE (1988), installation at Whitney Museum of Art, New York, 2007 7. Lawrence Weiner, MANY COLORED OBJECTS PLACED SIDE BY SIDE TO FORM A ROW OF MANY COLORED OBJECTS (1979), installation at Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, 1982 8 & 9. Lawrence Weiner, THE ARCTIC CIRCLE SHATTERED, Inuvik Northwest Territory, 1969 10a – 10c. Marcel Broodthaers, A Voyage On The North Sea, film stills, 1973-1974 11. Lawrence Weiner, A 36” X 36” REMOVAL TO THE LATHING OR SUPPORT WALL OF PLASTER OR WALL-BOARD FROM A WALL, (1968), installation at Seth Siegelaub Gallery, New York, 1969 12. Lawrence Weiner, Untitled, 1968 13. Frank Stella, installation at Leo Castelli Gallery, 1960 14.. Removal Paintings stacked in Weiner’s Bleecker Street studio, c. 1967 15. Lawrence Weiner, 5 GALLONS WATER BASE TEMPERA PAINT POURED DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR AND ALLOWED TO REMAIN FOR THE DURATION OF THE EXHIBITION, installation at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax, 1969 16. Frank Stella, Ouray, 1962 17a. Lawrence Weiner, Propeller Painting, 1963 17b. Lawrence Weiner, Propeller Paintings, c. 1965 18. Lawrence Weiner, A SERIES OF STAKES SET IN THE GROUND AT REGULAR INTERVALS TO FORM A RECTANGLE TWINE STRUNG FROM STAKE TO STAKE TO DEMARK A GRID A RECTANGLE REMOVED FROM THIS RECTANGLE, installation at Windham College, Putney, Vermont, 1968 19. Carl Andre, Joint, 1968 ii 20. Carl Andre, 144 Lead Square, 1969 21. Carl Andre, Untitled (144 Pieces of Zinc), 1968; Lawrence Weiner, Untitled, 1967; Robert Barry, Untitled, 1967; installation at Laura Knott Gallery, Bradford Junior College, 1968 22. Carl Andre, Spill, 1966 23. Joseph Kosuth, Titled (Art as Idea as Idea) The Word “Definition,” 1966-68 24. Lawrence Weiner, Statements, 1968 25. Ed Ruscha, Twentysix Gasoline Stations, 1963 26. Lawrence Weiner, On Kawara and Sol LeWitt contributions for “48-Page Exhibition.” Studio International (July / August 1970) 27. Lawrence Weiner, AN AMOUNT OF BLEACH POURED UPON A RUG AND ALLOWED TO BLEACH, installation at Seth Siegelaub at McLandon Building, New York, 1968 28. Lawrence Weiner, TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL SPRAY CAN (1968), Sol LeWitt’s Hester Street Studio Floor, late 1960s 29. Lawrence Weiner, ONE PINT GLOSS WHITE LACQUER POURED DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR AND ALLOWED TO DRY (1986), installation at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2007 30. Lawrence Weiner, TWO MINUTES OF SPRAY PAINT DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR FROM A STANDARD AEROSOL SPRAY CAN (1968); ENCASED BY + REDUCED TO RUST (1986), installation at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2007 31. Allan Kaprow, Yard, 1961 32. Robert Rauschenberg, Pilgrim, 1960 33. Lawrence Weiner, A SQUARE REMOVAL FROM A RUG IN USE, installation in private residence Cologne, 1969 34. Robert Rauschenberg, White Painting with Numbers, 1949 35. Robert Rauschenberg, Rebus, 1955 36. Robert Rauschenberg, Retroactive I, 1963 37. Robert Rauschenberg, Currents, 1970 38. Lawrence Weiner, A RECTANGULAR REMOVAL FROM A XEROXED GRAPH SHEET IN PROPORTION TO THE OVERALL DIMENSIONS OF THE SHEET in Xerox Book, 1968 35. Rauschenberg, Factum I and II, 1957 40. Andy Warhol, 200 Campbell’s Soup Cans, 1962 41. Lawrence Weiner, TRIED AND TRUE, exhibition catalog contribution to Information at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1979 iii 42. Bruce Nauman, From Hand To Mouth, 1967 43. Ed Ruscha, Desire, 1969 44. Ed Ruscha, Sea of Desire, 1976 45a & 45b. Lawrence Weiner, installation for Displacement at Dia Center For The Arts, New York, 1991 – 1992 46. Lawrence Weiner, installation for Displacement at Dia Center For The Arts, New York, 1991 - 1992 47. Lawrence Weiner, Displacement, exhibition catalog, 1991 48. Lawrence Weiner, A RUBBER BALL THROWN AT THE SEA, contribution for group exhibition at Simon Fraser University, 1969 49. Douglas Huebler, “A AND B REPRESENT POINTS LOCATED ONE INCH BEHIND THE PICTURE PLANE,” Xerox Book, 1968 50. Douglas Huebler, “A AND B REPRESENT POINTS LOCATED 100,000,000 MILES BEHIND THE PICTURE PLANE,” Xerox Book, 1968 51. Lawrence Weiner, A RUBBER BALL THROWN INTO THE AMERICAN FALLS NIAGARA FALLS and A RUBBER BALL THROWN INTO THE CANADIAN FALLS NIAGARA FALLS; strips from film by Hollis Frampton of Weiner constructing the work, 1969 52. Lawrence Weiner, announcement card for Beached, 1970 53. Richard Serra, To Encircle Base Plate Hexagram, Right Angles Inverted, New York, 1970 54. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, Great Salt Lake, Utah, film stills, 1970 55. Lawrence Weiner, Broken Off, video still, 1971 56. Lawrence Weiner, BROKEN OFF, 1971 57. Lawrence Weiner, BROKEN OFF (1971), the Arts Club of Chicago, 1987 58. Lawrence Weiner, BROKEN OFF (1971) installation at Kunsthalle Bern, 1983 59a & 59b. Lawrence Weiner, Screenplay & Movie, 2005 60. Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing 56: A square is divided horizontally and vertically into four equal parts, each with lines in four directions superimposed progressively, 1970 (installation view and detail, Mass MOCA, North Adams, 2008) 61. Lawrence Weiner, ONE PINT GLOSS WHITE LACQUER POURED DIRECTLY UPON THE FLOOR AND ALLOWED TO DRY, Weiner constructing the work on Robert and Julia Barry’s kitchen floor, New York, 1968 62a & 62b. Lawrence Weiner, THE RESIDUE OF A FLARE IGNITED UPON A BOUNDARY, Weiner constructing the work at the city line of Amsterdam for the exhibition “Op Loose Schroeven,” 1969 iv 63.