Page 15 - Studio-International-January-1974

verbal information, so the visual attractiveness encore' for 'over and over'). I think it is types of causation, to 'change' and to
must not allow itself to be construed as the important to note, however, that the `accomplish'. The ten works in the book
aesthetic content of the communication. translations are done by a professional divide into five pairs in which 'affect' and
Pressed on this point by Roald Nasgaard in our translator working in collaboration with the `effect' are specified as to area of operation,
class-discussion, Lawrence Weiner compared artist. `pressure and/or pull', 'heat and/or cold',
his concern for the material presentation of his One of Lawrence Weiner's primary concerns `explosion and/or implosion', 'corrosion and/or
books to a simple act of courtesty like combing is that art should operate as a practical everyday vacuum' and 'noise and/or silence'. The first
one's hair or brushing one's teeth. It emerged activity. In the Avalanche interview, he work in each pair begins : 'Affected as to
that the printer who did 10 Works was also the compares the role of the artist to that of a pressure and/or pull' (or heat and/or cold as the
printer for the Department of Public Works of die-maker, a doctor (if the doctor is no good to case may be) and continues to specify on
Paris, and as that seemed to be the sort of a butcher) and to a physicist; at Guelph, for subsequent pages five different ways of being
book he could do best, most efficiently and at the benefit of a non-metropolitan campus, he changed: 'curtailed . . .', disengaged . .
short notice, so the volume is not only added 'agronomist'. However, 'Artists are `restrained ...', 'weakened .
and 'tinged as
attractive but also expressive in its somewhat basically semi-skilled labourers',19 and to pressure and/or pull', each phrase
rough unbleached paper and grainy pink cover Lawrence Weiner readily defers to the expertise spreading across the top of an open double page
of the source from which it emerged. 'Standard' of professionals wherever his work impinges and repeated across the bottom with the order of
is relative, like the 'purity' and 'clarity' of on more definitive areas of competence, `pressure' and 'pull' reversed (figure 7); the
minimal art, to the context within which its printer, flautist or translator. In each case, as first work runs to twelve sides in all. As 'affect'
criteria are effective, and so 10 Works looks very with the receiver, deference is a device as well refers to change so the mode of change can be
French compared with the spiral binder and as a courtesy. If the translation seems to isolate detailed, but 'effect' means 'bring into being'
smooth immaculately bleached pages of the particular meaning of the word intended, the and being is an absolute which can only be
Causality: Affected and/or Effected produced intervention of a second understanding in the affirmed, so the second work is simply
by Leo Castelli in the same year, 1971. person of the translator leaves a modicum of Effected as to pressure and/or pull across one
One appreciates the distinction Lawrence doubt which, if it does not suspend the meaning open double page.
Weiner makes in the Avalanche interview function of the words, helps to make us aware of Causality: Affected and/or Effected marks an
between the expressionist 'unique emotional language as material in a sense quite distinct extreme in the total regularity of its verbal
object produced by a prophet' and the 'show from the physical materiality of printed ink- permutations. The splitting of each phrase so
and tell . . . which art is basically all about'.18 marks and spoken sounds. that the 'and/or ...' section always occupies
In the cultural conditions of our time, it has The Mill Valley holes were unique and the page on the right gives a visual emphasis to
rarely proved possible for art's traditional specific material entities, the works which this regularity. It is also the most abstract in its
morphologies to operate on an authentic show followed standard patterns of material structure. material concepts. If 'effect' and 'affect' are
and tell basis and that is clearly one of the The earliest verbal presentations in Statements interestingly related words, the possibilities of
reasons Lawrence Weiner prefers linguistic were noun phrases which specified the details of elaboration that each offers is the result of the
expression, but even a word in the most material structure within the tolerances of a nature of change and being as such and not of
practical use-context always declares more standard formula. Traces supplies no more than the vagaries of idiomatic usage. More than any
than the appropriate dictionary definition for the mode of actualization, while 10 Works gives of the other books, this one (whose American
that context. Words like 'standard' and only locational qualifications that leave site, spiral binder suggests a scientific manual)
`regular' may be an indication of personality substance, pattern and means of construction reduces language to a series of statistical norms.
as much as their opposites, and having counted to be decided on the occasion of receivership, Even without the confirmation of a translation,
these words it might be interesting to go through should the collector ask for the piece to be built. we can be quite sure that 'Effected as to cold'
Traces and hunt out words like 'affronted', As the works progress, this possibility seems must mean 'brought to a definitive condition of
`obstructed' or 'shattered' which in other less likely, the third condition becomes existence as regards to temperature reading in a
contexts might have revolutionary connotations noticeably more equal than the other two. relatively low range', but that may not at once
and reflect on the artist's marxist convictions. In the Avalanche interview, which dates from call to mind any very graphic material
In 10 Works, we see Lawrence Weiner himself that same year of 10 Works, Causality: Affected illustration.
exploiting the residual indeterminacy in any and/or Effected and Flowed, Willoughby Sharp A Primer23 of the following year is also
use of language. 'Down and out', 'around and asked what use the material construction had fundamental in its way but according to
about' and 'over and out' have idiomatic and Lawrence Weiner replied, 'As illustration' altogether more humane criteria. If there is a
readings which in any book-as-literature — which makes it definitely subordinate to certain regularity and system to both its contents
would almost certainly be the correct ones, linguistic description." and presentation, it acknowledges in full the
and even 'in and out' has a colloquial reading From as early as 1969, dates a piece for the basic irregularity, specificness and asymmetry
which may turn a knowing sensual eye on the Art and Project Bulletin where he had the of language. A Primer was produced for
standard Department of Public Works of Paris phrase 'A translation from one language to Documenta 5 (whose theme was Inquiry into
pink of the cover. These disappear as soon as the another' translated into two other languages. 21 Reality — Today's Image Worlds) and this fact
sequence is inverted but 'on and off' means the Whatever the disposition of the receiver, it does also accounts for the German translation, but
same as 'off and on' and 'through and through' not seem possible that the work could be the two versions of the title, for instance, extend
is still 'through and through'. In this case, the fabricated in any material other than that of its meaning in a way altogether more germane
translation establishes the shared meaning of the language itself, nor does it seem, in fact, to to the context than the double entendre of
French and English even though 'a travers et leave anything for him to decide. In 10 Works. 'Primer' has overtones of 'primeval'
travers' may have an idiomatic reading in that Causality: Affected and/or Effected22 where the as well as 'primary' while 'Elementarbuch'
language. When it comes to the crunch, he opts possibility of building in other materials does suggests 'elemental' as well as 'elementary'
for the literal material reading and this in the remain, the designation is on so general and and it is this sense of the German that
end serves to point up the fact that this is art fundamental a level that the reader is left not provides the key to the contents. The 'elements'
and not literature. He also opts for the meaning so much with the evocation of physical art are defined not according to the notions of
of individual words and it is only where this is structures as with an awareness of the modern chemistry, but according to the
in dispute that the translation offers an subtlety of semantic distinctions. humanistic tradition of Aristotelean physics
alternative (`dessus et dessus' and 'encore et The basic distinction is between the two which survives today as part of our literary

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