Lawrence Weiner In Conversation with Lisa Le Feuvre Part I

Lawrence Weiner talks to Lisa Le Feuvre about his recent exhibition 'BE THAT AS IT MAY' at Lisson Gallery, 28 November 2012 -- 12 January 2013. Widely recognised for his pioneering role in the development of conceptualism in the 1960s, Weiner has spent the last five decades deconstructing artistic practices into various concepts of language and idea. Weiner is primarily a sculptor working with language. His artistic process sees him work with various sculptural materials, translating the experience into text. The resulting texts are often ambiguous and open to interpretation, leaving space for multiple iterations of the same piece. The manifestations of his work are similarly open-ended and Weiner considers the conveying of information as the core of the work, taking precedence over its physicality. The multitude of forms his works have taken over the years bears testament to this, with previous works sung, painted or engraved on walls, enacted, built, printed or stamped on coins and manhole covers. The public realm has played an important part throughout Weiner's career, with his slogans creeping plant-like across the facades of public buildings around the world, translated into numerous languages. Weiner's desire to put work out in the world for all to read and engage with dates back to his earliest experiences of art growing up in the South Bronx, New York. He says, "I did not have that advantage of a middle-class perspective. Art was something else; art was the notations on the wall, or art was the messages left by other people. I grew up in a city where I had read the walls; I still read the walls. I love to put work of mine out on the walls and let people read it. Some will remember it and then somebody else comes along and puts something else over it. It becomes archaeology rather than history." From the seminal Statements of 1968, his first book, to his many iconic urban and public installations, Weiner continues to be internationally recognised as one of the foremost artistic practitioners working in America today.