Installation view of Lawrence Weiner MADE TO BE at Regen Projects. Photo: Brian Forrest.
Lawrence Weiner is into words — big, broad words that unabashedly cover gallery walls and floors, taking up the maximum amount of space. He minted his place in art history back during 1960s conceptualism, and has continued making the same type of typographically inspired work ever since. Some of the phraseology is pure wordplay, somewhat catchy and similar to certain tweets that we may encounter out in the world, like this one by Terrance Hayes published by from #TwitterPoetryClub. It’s enchanting in its randomness and nonsensical pursuits.
Employing a similar philosophy to his conceptual colleague Sol LeWitt, Weiner declares that the artist need not make the work of art on the wall — he must only offer instructions on carrying it out. In a time of technologically enhanced distractions, it can be nice to experience words that play with form and meaning. His solo exhibition MADE TO BE at Regen Projects does just that, arranging words and taking up space, but the show itself leaves a lot to the imagination.
Installation view of Lawrence Weiner MADE TO BE at Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo: Brian Forrest.
The type of work in this show made me wonder about what’s more relevant: the visual display of the words, or the words themselves? That’s a reasonable question for work like this. The piece “As Thick As Can Be” is just those giant words stenciled onto the back wall of the gallery. It’s art funny, not “haha laugh-out-loud funny.” Just the kind of funny that leaves you wondering, “Why not laugh right now, we’re all here in the gallery enjoying this somewhat aesthetic experience?”
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On the floor of the main gallery, visitors can literally step on the words “Sand & Stone Put Under Foot Some From Here Some From There” in that piece of the same name. Each word occupies its own blue box, and is connected to the next through an overlapping jagged pink rectangle or triangle. Is this description a reference to man-made beaches or some fake suburban backyard arrangement? The words line things up but offer little explanation therein. In the front room, as visitors walk into the gallery, written in a stencil font are the words: “Oxygen & acetylene made to weld iron at a height from the level of the sea.” The words themselves form a description of the material, but leave viewers wondering where this phrase was going, much like a half-thought that someone decides to tweet out into the universe.
Installation view of Lawrence Weiner MADE TO BE at Regen Projects, Los Angeles. Photo: Brian Forrest.
Weiner is known for saying things like: “I really believe that the subject matter of my art is—art.” Language becomes a form of art in and of itself, which is reminiscent of Jenny Holzer’s TRUISMS. Except Weiner’s work is not at all about a political act or observation.
Think, instead, of Weiner’s Declaration of Intent (also 1968), which is much like LeWitt’s Paragraphs on Conceptual Art and essentially removes the artist’s hand from the project itself:
- The artist may construct the piece.
- The piece may be fabricated.
- The piece 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.
With that in mind, Weiner could write whatever he wants on these walls or this floor, making this art less about the aesthetic content and more about production. In this sense, the art isn’t about what’s in front of the viewer, but rather what it triggers for the viewer. Words carry meanings, but much like the idea of reality, the words can take on whatever meaning you want them to have, whatever you want them to be. It just depends on your perspective. Hence, the art is less about the intent of the artist, and mostly about the viewer’s experience of it.
