Some Objects of Desire

The extraordinary.Every time is much more difficult to find it. Seeking for it, that´s my habit. Seeking for that I don´t really understand or comprehend. So, when living in Barcelona, I met "him", a visual artist with an incredible vision about "the contemporary", and all its odds. 


He invited me to MACBA´s Private Collection "Time as Matter: New Pieces" Open Show.And then we met: The Iconic Weiner and me.

Some Objects of Desire, with its inexact mathematical formula and ambiguous language, between descriptive and metaphoric, affirms the relationship between different objects and each and every one of its viewers. It seems to evoke the Bronxite Lawrence Weiner (b.1942) definition of art as the relation between human beings and objects, and objects in relation to human beings. Since the 70´s, Weiner has been a key figure in Conceptual Art. In 1964 he started the series of painting Propeller based on TV test cards. Through this image, immediately recognisable and reproducible, Weiner cancelled not only decisions in composition, but also elements such as inspiration,surprise, expression or self-definition,disavowing and even parodying contemporary subjective or romantic tendencies in expressionist painting. Each of the work in this series has the same price, confirming that the works had being conceived conceptually and not as individual objects. Nonetheless, the works were not accepted as ideas, but as paintings. Later on, in an attempt to eliminate the importance of the artist, Weiner created the Removal Paintings series , which he spray-painted , eliminating a piece of the canvas, usually in one of the corners. In this mechanical process, the person receiving the work would say what size, color and shape her or she wanted to removed from the painting. Though these painting undermine their work authority by inviting and then incorporating the authority of the viewer, the works still had specific qualities. 

Another Weiner exhibition consisted of a book titled Statements. Obviously the work was presented only as text. Since that time, his work was dealt primarily with the use of Language.*  It is through language that Weiner finds an instrument to present material relationships in an objective manner. Language, becomes for the artist an instrument that eliminates references to the subjectivity of the author, the artist´s hand,ability or taste. 

In 1969 he published his declaration of Intent:

1. THE ARTIST MAY CONSTRUCT THE PIECE

2. THE PIECE MAY BE FABRICATED

3. THE PIECE NEED NOT TO BE BUILT EACH BEING EQUAL AND CONSISTENT WITH THE INTENT OF THE ARTIST THE DECISIONS AS TO CONDITION RESTS WITH THE RECEIVER UPON THE OCCASION OF RECEIVERSHIP.

His unique ideas clearly favor ideas over material form and have manifested themselves on postcards,movies,records,manhole covers or even sugar packets, together with the walls of artistic institutions. He taught us language is accessible, democratic,subjective and belonging to all those that can read or write. And that´s how art should be. / Eva Guerra.

Some objects of desire + 

some objects of necessity + 

some objects of no concern -

those things that escape notice / 

a force majeure

= some things

.........................................

*FYI / It was a private early collector Count Panza, who first had Weiner´s Pieces written directly on the Wall.

Some Objects of Desire