Buchloh, conceptual art.pdf - Course Materials Repository

:i~j::::-:ii::':::i-
.......::
jiiiiiiiiii
...iiiiiiii~iii ._: ::? ::I -:i:
-i:-!iI :i:: :-i-lijiiil-ilii-:i:i
i1::::::?_:::?::::::::::
:???::
??:!i~~i
::-:.-_:::::_i: ::-i:iii:i:_r: : ::i:::::::: ::: -: :: :
iiiii-i-iii iil:
jii:--; :iii-iii'_?
Lawrence Weiner, respectively entitled A Square Removalfrom a Rug in Use and A
36" X 36" Removal to the Lathing or Support Wall of Plaster or Wallboard from a
Wall (both published or "reproduced" in Statements, 1968), in which the specific
paradigmatic changes Conceptual Art initiates with regard to the legacy of
reductivist formalism are clearly evident. Both interventions - while maintaining
their structural and morphological links with formal traditions by respecting
classical geometry as their definition at the level of shape--inscribe themselves
in the support surfaces of the institution and/or the home which that tradition
had always disavowed. The carpet (presumably for sculpture) and the wall (for
painting), which idealist aesthetics always declares as mere "supplements," are
foregrounded here not only as parts of their material basis but as the inevitable
future location of the work. Thus the structure, location, and materials of the
intervention, at the very moment of their conception, are completely determined
by their future destination. While neither surface is explicitly specified in terms
of its institutional context, this ambiguity of dislocation generates two oppositional,
yet mutually complementary readings. On the one hand, it dissipates the
traditional expectation of encountering the work of art only in a "specialized" or
"qualified" location (both "wall" and "carpet" could be either those of the home
or the museum, or, for that matter, could just as well be found in any other
location such as an office, for example). On the other, neither one of these
surfaces could ever be considered to be independent from its institutional location,
since the physical inscription into each particular surface inevitably generates
contextual readings dependent upon the institutional conventions and the
particular use of those surfaces in place.
iii'
Lawrence Weiner. A 36" x 36" Square Removal to
the Wallboard or Lathing from a Wall. 1968.