LAWRENCE WEINER
Lawrence Weiner (USA) is one of the most significant and iconic artists of his generation. As a pioneer of the Conceptual Art movement in the 1960’s, Weiner was among the first to deconstruct the object of art using language as a tool.
Creating his own typeface, Margaret Seaworthy, using utilitarian monochromes, either stenciled, painted, printed, or mounted in relief, he composes sculptural propositions as texts that describe process, material, and relations. Dedicated to the circulation of ideas and meaning, a single statement can be endlessly adapted into a myriad of forms, from paint to stone to song lyrics.
His works have been shown internationally in both museums and importantly inhabiting many public spaces around the world – sides of buildings, pavements, public squares, manhole covers – and are frequently passed from the hand of one reader to another.
His first manifesto was short and to the point:
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 (DECLARATION OF INTENT 1968)
He began using carefully composed sentences on paper, or in films, video, books and posters, and often painted directly onto floors or exterior walls (borrowing from an Oriental tradition, where the wise words of ancient Chinese wisdom are painted on the floors and walls of the temples and tea houses).
Not fixed in any particular time or place, every manifestation and point of reception is different, as a proposition or statement, each work need not be confined to an existence in one realised form, place or time but could be constructed in different contexts.
ProjectBase commissioned Lawrence Weiner to create his first solo exhibition in Cornwall which includes works from 1999 and 2005 and a new work from 2009.
The Tidal Observatory, located at Newlyn Harbour, in a small single-storey unremarkable building next to the Lighthouse, is where the UK National Tidal and Sea Level Facility operates the UK Fundamental Benchmark. The Tidal Observatory was established to determine the mean sea level that is the starting point for leveling in the UK. This brass bolt is the benchmark for the whole of the United Kingdom - all heights are referenced to this point. The height of the benchmark was established over a six year period from 1915 to 1921, when visual observations of water level on a tide staff were made every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. From the data collected over this period, mean sea level was found and this vertical level transferred to the head of the bolt. The Ordnance Survey, the United Kingdom's mapping agency, used to base all elevations including mapped contour lines and spot heights on the mean sea level at Newlyn, which are now carried out with more sophisticated techniques. The Observatory and the datum it generates and records are logged by the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory (in Liverpool) as an archive to record the national tidal flow, and historically was used to determine global tide levels. At various stages throughout recent history, the Observatory has been removed from public records and maps, as the data collected by the Benchmark was sensitive in the protection of our coastal waters and the Observatory was subject to the Official Secrets Act. The Tidal Observatory is not accessible to the public
