Disappearing off the page, I say, but infinitely continuing.
Word-strings that pierce walls,
Lines begun on a page but now objects fallen into space?
Discuss among yourselves.
And what if he built a home for his words but put no words in it,
Just bars and lines, maybe musical, maybe just space dividers,
And then a title, something about a home for a “Book About Books”?
But what kind of space is that?
Can you touch it or feel it or find it?
Or maybe it’s just lines occupying space,
words assumed to have meaning
but rejecting explanation.
I guess that’s okay. Text=Art, right?
Words freed from meaning; freed from explanation; even freed from commerce!
That’s why I can copy Larry’s work and it’s just the same as if he had made it.
He said that.
Years ago.
And the great thing is that now I’ve got an empty wall at my home.
It’s full of space.
Empty space.
It only needs some words to be a home for words.
Words that anyone can use.
Words that occupy space.
Like these:
TO THE SEA
ON THE SEA
FROM THE SEA
AT THE SEA
BORDERING THE SEA
I’m going to stencil them on my wall.
Won’t even have to pay him.
Larry won’t mind.
I know he won’t.
Lawrence Weiner Biography
Lawrence Weiner (b. 1942, Bronx, NY) received his high school diploma from Stuyvesant High School, New York. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Weiner traveled throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada. The first presentation of Weiner’s work was in Mill Valley, California (1960). His most recent solo exhibitions were held at the Marian Goodman Gallery, New York (2007); CAC Málaga, Spain (2008); The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2009); Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló, Spain (2009); House of Art, Budweis, Czech Republic (2010); the Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp, Belgium (2011); Collection Lambert en Avignon, France (2011); Regen Projects, Los Angeles (2012); Base / Progetti per L’Arte, Florence (2012); Galleria Alfonso Artiaco, Naples (2012); Galerie Hubert Winter, Vienna (2012); Blain|Southern, Berlin (2012); Lisson Gallery, London (2013); Villa e Collezione Panza, Varese, Italy (2013); ArtAids Foundation, Santa Caterina Market, Barcelona (2013); and Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2013). Weiner divides his time between his studio in New York City and his boat in Amsterdam.
Michael Straus Biography
Michael Straus (b. 1949, Newark, NJ) resides in Birmingham, Alabama. He earned AB and MA degrees from Columbia University, New York, a JD from the New York University School of Law and, most recently, an MPhil in Ancient Greek from the University of Cambridge, England. He is an occasional writer for The Brooklyn Rail; a member of the Drawings Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; a Trustee of the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama; and Board Chair of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
