LAWRENCE WEINER

1. The artist may construct the work

2. The work may be fabricated

3. The work need not be built

(Each being equal and consistent with the intent of the artist, the decision as to condition rests with the receiver upon the occasion of receivership.)__

The receiver and the artist collaborate in the synthesis of the work, whether manifested or not. Weiner’s artworks can be made for a specific site but are not created as such. His materials and their formal presentation vary – installed on walls, floors, or windows of museums, galleries, homes and public spaces. Works appear on a multitude of surfaces, from matchbooks to manhole covers, pins and t-shirts, spoken on film or sung on a record. The same work can appear in different formats as to placement, colour, typeface, format, and scale and with texts, for example, painted, printed, stenciled, or in vinyl. Weiner’s work continues to disrupt our notion of art’s use, authorship, display, and material.

One of the key figures associated with the emergence and foundations of Conceptual Art during the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner is known for his text-based works that explore the nature of language, meaning, and communication. Considering language as a material object, Weiner helped to expand the ontological definition of art and explored the relationship between words and power, as Anne Rorimer has commented, ‘liberat[ing] the work of art from its traditional subjugation to uniqueness.’ In this survey exhibition, UCCA presents a selection of key works, chosen in collaboration with Lawrence Weiner Estate. Featuring text works dating from the 1970s through the 2010s, alongside archival materials, this exhibition marks Weiner’s first institutional presentation in China since his work TO ALLOW THE LIGHT was commissioned and presented in 2007 as part of UCCA’s inaugural series of exhibitions.