Re: 0 (Lawrence Weiner and the Ellipsis)

A passage . . .

written by Benjamin H. D. Buchloh, in a 1986 essay titled “The Posters of Lawrence Weiner,” provides the inspiration as well as an analogy (in regards to how Weiner utilizes the ellipsis) for how Re:,* a new series of posts, will unfold:

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Above: Weiner’s use of the ellipsis as “a fragmentation prohibiting closure and perfection . . . .”
Above Left: Poster for Galleria Sperone (Turin, Italy, 1973)
Above Right: Poster for Modern Art Agency (Naples, Italy, 1973)

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Buchloh describes Weiner’s use of the ellipsis as a “rhetorical device” that is used as a “strategy of . . . removal . . . .” Elaborating further, he then defines the ways in which Weiner has implemented this idea (this “strategy”) in formal and “perceptual” ways:

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A removal of an amount of earth from
the ground
The intrusion into this hole of a st
andard processed material

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Above Left: One of Weiner’s statements, from his seminal publication Statements (1968), demonstrating “the fracturing of the . . . word by unconventional and illegitimate word-and syllable breaks . . . .”
Above Right: Poster for Gewad (Gent, Belgium, 1982), demonstrating “the fragmentation . . . of the . . . rectangle by removal cuts . . . .”
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Note: Unless specified otherwise, all of the scanned passages, images, and citations in this post are from Lawrence Weiner: Posters, November 1965–April 1986. Nova Scotia: The Press of the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design; Toronto: Art Metropole, 1986.

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* Re: . . .

is a new series of posts, an evolving “conversation” between regular and guest contributors of the blog, where each subsequent post, crafted in response to the content of the preceding post, further adds to the depth and interconnectedness of the larger conversation.

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