Page 17 - Studio-International-January-1974

musicologist to give a detailed evaluation of the games,25 and if 7 invites classification as 'music', the possibility of one non-signifying form where
significance of that contribution. A translation from one language to another may are we to stop ?
One understands that the question whether suggest, if not a game, then at least the The coloured cover is not unique among
vocal music preceded instrumental music is linguistic art of 'literature', but there are other Lawrence Weiner's books. This one is red both
still in dispute, but even if the priority of vocal recent works which refer to 'art' in the inside and out, back and front. The name of the
music were established, there is a distinction narrowed sense of its primary morphology. artist and the title 'Green as well as blue as well
between the use of music as a formal adjunct In March 1972, Lawrence Weiner produced a as red' appear on the front cover in yellow.
to linguistic expression and the accommodation postcard at Nova Scotia College of Art. It The words are aligned in narrow bands of bold
of that form to the possibility of linguistic carried a work (turned) red as well as black, extended capitals, but the letters themselves
designation. Lawrence Weiner's record is no and underneath, reminding us of the theoretical are negative, relieved against the red of the
more concerned with the literary aspects of bilingualism of Canada, '(tourne) rouge aussi ground which is printed over a general yellow
songs than is his earlier art with the depictive que noir'. If we recall the childhood riddle, base, it is the spaces between the words that are
possibilities of painting and sculpture. There `What's black and white and red (read) all positive. For Nicholas Calas, the linear forms of
might be an interesting comparison to be made over ?', we may get a special nudge from the Barnett Newman evoked the aesthetic of
with Wagner. He, too, made music more English which disappears in the French typography by comparison with the
radically dependent on language than in translation where 'rouge' has not the calligraphy of abstract expressionist gestures,27
previous periods, and his music too involves an slightest punning allusion to 'lu', though and one wonders if the same metaphor working
exchange of meaning between different levels, `rouge 'and 'noir' have enough literary overtones in reverse might not suggest a reading of the
dramatic, verbal and musical, but the to fill a novel. What comes through very cover of Lawrence Weiner's latest book in terms
transmuted meaning is emotion, the mode of clearly in both versions is the possibility of of the aesthetic of field-painting. If the
transmutation 'symbolism' as opposed to the actualization in the most indisputably standard miniature scale seems to make nonsense of this
more rational process of 'signification' entailed art-form, painting. We note the invitation suggestion, the cover is no smaller than the
in Lawrence Weiner's work. Might there (stressed in the English) to refer that possibility photographic plates through which Barnett
perhaps emerge in the comparison of nineteenth- to the `picture'-surface of the postcard itself, Newman's art reaches its widest audience.
century music generally with that of the present and we wonder if we should 'turn' the card so In the Avalanche interview, Lawrence
the same contrast between literary and that the message can be 'read' on the other side. Weiner states that, 'perhaps the most
linguistic orientation which is so evident in the Occasionally, Lawrence Weiner uses these significant aspect of my art is the relationship
sphere of art ? cards himselfjust like ordinary postcards with of the culture to my entire production, rather
There are some more limited conclusions a message written in the usual way on the back. than a specific piece'.28 It is through the operation
that the layman may draw for himself. The The book Green as well as blue as well as red of this juxtaposition that the artist fulfils his
accommodation of the musical structure to which Lawrence Weiner recently produced with role of 'cultural dialectician'. In Avalanche,
language means something rather different in the Jack Wendler in England26 develops a similar he also tells us that he is a marxist,29 and I think
English and in the French where alphabetic theme in extenso. In ten pieces, the text it may be possible, in light of this admission, to
designations are not used but those of the tonic (entirely in English) combines the colour find some consistency of purpose behind the
sol-fa. These traditional terms of musical designations, in complex and not quite regular changing strategy of his developing position.
vocalization set the connection of music and permutations, with various short adverbial The Mill Valley craters can only be interpreted
language in a more familiar context, and phrases; 'as well as', 'more or less', 'over and as a gesture of revolutionary activism, but that
perhaps also make the affinities of a wind above', 'in relation to' and 'in lieu of in the first gesture relates less to the positive idealism of
instrument with the human voice more half of the book, followed by negatives of these marxist philosophy than to the fact of its
conspicuous. To those who are aware of the same phrases in the second half. The working confrontation with the ideology of western
origins of these terms in syllables from a Latin out of these permutations leads us through capitalism.
hymn to St. John, the French version may such forms as 'to relation in', 'of lieu in' and A lot of marxist artists have reverted to
suggest antiquarian and ecclesiastical overtones, `not of lieu in'. Straining the possibilities of depictive modes which may make their marxist
and this awareness also complicates the language in this way causes us to wonder at the meaning clear enough, and may even achieve the
distinction between literary content and ambiguity of possibilities of reading marks casual approval of a proletarian audience, not so
linguistic codification, but I suspect that, as marks-as-art and marks as words much because of their political philosophy but
paradoxically, these implications might be designating art. One wonders particularly at the because of the intellectual availability of their
more apparent to a native English-speaker parentheses and underlinings which represent depictive language. This language is cumbersome
reading the French; in English usage the the most generous (though still rudimentary) and time-consuming, and consequently,
specific identification of the sol-fa with the scale use of punctuation in Lawrence Weiner's expensive. There is a singular irony in the
of C major is itself archaic. books to date. These occur in every piece at contrast of working-class subject matter and the
Another general point is important. There least three times and always at least once with precious self-evidently upper-class container.
exists a virile and effective counter-culture or blanks, as in highly abstract forms like Lawrence Weiner's art in its mature

as well as
sub-culture in relation to music which has no '( )— development does not seek to contain an
real parallel in relation to art. Lawrence Where they are combined with words it is everyday meaning within the exclusive context
Weiner explained to me himself that Cote II' always the colour terms that are underlined as in of art, but puts an art meaning at first (in the
was used in preference to 'Face II' because of its `not (more) green over blue not above red' which standard form of simply built structures)
more general connotations, while the tiny appears at the top of a page at the bottom of within the everyday context of a rug or
photograph of the performers (and the which we find the same words but without driveway, and later - still without
producer) on the back of the cover pays token underlinings or parentheses. Underlining is a condescension - as verbal information in the
tribute to the conventions of the counter- convention of manuscripts not of printed most widely available material vehicle of
culture. This does not mean that the record texts, and one wonders if one should read the inexpensive booklets. Many of Lawrence
aspires to the condition of pop-music, simply colour terms with a special emphasis or Weiner's works are allocated to 'Collection
that Lawrence Weiner prefers to set his work in perhaps read line and colour separately as the Public Freehold', but his survival still depends
the more everyday situation. traditionally basic terms of artistic statement. on sales to private individuals within the
Wittgenstein includes 'Translating from one And what of the curved lines of the parentheses ? context of a capitalist society. The reduction of
language into another' in his list of language - or of the whole line of type ? If once we allow the object to the status of an optional extra