Word Art

                                    Word Art    
     First as preparation, consider written artworks such as Jenny Holzer’s sign -- Protect me from what I want.




and Martin Creed’s sign -- Everything is Going to be Alright.



      I don’t see those as strictly conceptual works. I take Holzer's to be anti-consumerism philosophy and Creed's to be reassuring psychology with a touch of farce.
                             Logic and Semantics
         Contrary to Holzer and Creed, strict conceptual artists prefer self referential worded statements or semantic word play. The following 2005 statement, by Lawrence Weiner was displayed in an art gallery on the wall in large stylistically mismatched scrap letters. It says:

Bits and pieces put together to present a semblance of a whole.


Of course, the sentence is made of bits and pieces.
         Joseph Kosuth in 1965, made a strict conceptual work consisting of an object, a representation of it, and words. In an art gallery, he presented a chair, a photo of the chair, and a dictionary definition of a chair. Those three related items are a natural outgrowth of Magritte’s picture of a pipe with text saying it is not a pipe, but without Magritte’s humor.
        More grand, at least in materials, is a lighted green shaped neon tubing, by John Baldessari. The tubing spells out the message:

                               An object self-defined.


        Another conceptual piece by Baldessari, that I like much better, reminds me of my grammar school days. It is a sheet of paper, framed, and hanging in an art gallery. On the sheet, there are seventeen hand written sentences, in script, in black ink, one below the other, going all the way to the bottom of the page, just like an old fashioned punish lesson. The sentences say:

I will not make any more boring art.
I will not make any more boring art.
I will not make any more boring art. And so on.

     You can see that actual Baldessari artwork and related information on the website of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. I mention that MOMA owns the work to show that the work has status.
      Those examples give a fair idea of what passes for conceptual art. Beyond those examples, there are thousands of pages of manifestos, analysis, and criticism about conceptual art.
                               Absurd Word Art
     We just saw strict conceptual word art. Let’s turn to something related but different. At the White Cube gallery in London a few years ago I saw paintings by the British artist Harland Miller. He makes large paintings employing optical illusions and other paintings that simulate shopworn Penguin books with strange titles on them. Martin Creed’s humor was playful, but Harland Miller’s humor is absurd – like that of Monty Python. We won’t show images of the paintings – just imagine authentic looking book covers with the following titles.


I’ll never forget what I can’t remember;
I’m the one I’ve been waiting for;
Death: What’s in it for me?

      We will take the liberty to call those sayings Harland Isms. I see similarities with Yogi Isms, sayings attributed to the American baseball player Yogi Berra. For those not familiar with Yogi Isms, here are a few.

That restaurant is so crowded nobody goes there anymore.
It’s déjà vu all over again.
The future isn’t what it used to be.
When you reach the fork in the road – take it.

With Harland and Yogi, if you interpret them the right way, it is possible to find truth.
      As we have been doing throughout let’s try to bring some order to these sayings. All of Harland’s sayings seem to be personal comments by Harland about himself and his own perception. Yogi’s first three sayings seem like general observations about things and actions ‒ at least as he sees them. The last Yogi saying is advice or an instruction.
          Before we continue, are these sayings art? Fiction writers, poets, and musicians are referred to as artists, so why not Harland and Yogi?
See one last ambiguous piece of word art you might like. It is by the British artist David Shrigley.



                             


                                                 Aphorisms
       Jenny Holzer is another wordsmith-artist who has gone further in the art world than Harland and Yogi. She began in the 1970s creating sayings that have since then become known as truisms. At first she pasted the truisms up in public places. Later she showed them as public light bulb sign displays ‒ those that scroll along like a ticker tape. We saw one of those ‒ Protect Me From What I Want ‒ in the overview chapter. After the public message displays caught on, Holzer was able to show the truisms in galleries and museums. Here are some samples.
any surplus is immoral
drama often obscures the real issues
abuse of power comes as no surprise
morals are for little people,
raise boys and girls the same way
use what is dominant in a culture to change it quickly

      The first four truisms are general and take a position, namely, #1 moral, #2 observational analytic , #3 cynical , #4 narcissistic bullying . The last two truisms seem like admonitions or advice. Specifically, #5 gender equality , #6 political campaign or entertainment industry advice.
We can dig a little deeper into #6. It sounds very up to date ‒ using populism to gain power and after that change the culture, or shall we say change the government and power structure.
All the Holzer truisms have a demanding authoritative tone compared to the more innocent sayings of Harland and Yogi. Any one of these sayings has more impact when seen alone. If you see a list of dozens of these truisms, they get diluted as the reader becomes saturated.
      Jenny Holzer herself changed over from the short one-liners to a longer form that she calls an Inflammatory Essay. Each essay is composed of 100 words spread almost equally over 20 lines. Because of that regular structure the essays have a poetic character. You can find them at the Tate museum website.
In spirit, the essays are like manifestos of revolutionaries, fascists, greedy capitalist power mongers, or religious fanatics. Perhaps due to their blatant excess, they also have a touch of farce or parody ‒ they are scary and funny at the same time.
Holzer’s original truisms were quite a success in the art world. Notice, although they are zippy their zip wears off. A dictionary definition of the word truism is ‒ a statement that is obviously true and says nothing new or interesting. I think Jenny hoped for more than that and she succeeded.