1. THE ARTIST MAY CONSTRUCT THE WORK
2. THE WORK MAY BE FABRICATED
3. THE WORK NEED NOT BE BUILT
EACH BEING EQUAL AND CONSISTENT WITH THE INTENT OF THE ARTIST THE DECISION AS TO CONDITION RESTS WITH THE RECEIVER UPON THE OCCASION OF RECEIVERSHIP
- Statement of Intent, 1969
…the picture frame convention was a very real thing. The painting stopped at the edge. When you are dealing with language, there is no edge that the picture drops off. You are dealing with something completely infinite. Language, because it is the most nonobjective thing we have ever developed in this world, never stops.
- Lawrence Weiner, Radio symposium, WBAI-FM, New York, November 2, 1969
OSL contemporary is pleased to present the exhibition LONG AGO FAR AWAY, with new works by New York- based artist Lawrence Weiner. The show comprises of three sculptures and is Weiner’s second show at the gallery.
It is not hyperbole to say that Lawrence Weiner is one of the most influential conceptual artists alive. Weiner’s work has been exhibited over five decades in four Venice Biennales and four editions of documenta. Here language becomes a material to make sculpture. Words are objects. There is a logic here but it is not about communication. Underlying the work is a political impetus, yet the work is no way didactic or explicit. As he puts it, “You can change the whole world with art because you change the culture.” There are no hidden meanings or metaphors here. Aesthetically, Weiner’s work is defined by a graphic take on typography and shape. He creates work with his own typeface – Margaret Seaworthy Gothic – which he made by hand, aimed to resist the weight of history that many other fonts carry. His now iconic take on lettering – though instantly recognisable – is surprisingly varied, appearing in boxes, diagonally, in colours from sky blue and acid red, as an outline and notably in a global breadth of languages. The new work he has created for OSL Contemporary forms a single thing, but can also be broken into three parts. This collage-like approach, which approximates and adapts to architecture, is simply a fundamental methodological part of art making. Weiner’s work has no formal constraints. It can go on a wall, a building, a human body, a sticker, bricks, windows, or exist as a spoken sound. It does not even need to exist in a form at all. The results are intentionally egalitarian in nature. As he puts it, “I make a specific object that has no specific form”.
- Francesca Gavin, curator, author and writer based in London, 2019
OSL contemporary is also pleased to announce the official unveiling of Lawrence Weiner’s new site-specific work at KODE Museum of Bergen 10 September.
Coinciding with LONG AGO FAR AWAY, and as part of OSL series, there will be a published conversation between Francesca Gavin and Lawrence Weiner.
The artist will participate in a talk series together with artist Lotte Konow Lund
10.09.2019 at 13.00 at the University of Bergen
13.09.2019 at 19.00 at Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo
