In the course of some administrative duties, I recently came across these five words on a single sheet of paper...
After drawing a momentary blank as to the page's unspecified use or intention (a page for me to doodle on, make notes perhaps, or just discard?), the page is, of course, anything but blank... I will have to overlook the fact that this page occurs three times in just one document, and having been reproduced many times, equates to hundreds of intentionally blank pages...I wanted to view this non-blank page as a very small piece of unintentional 'found' conceptual art - as it brought into question the small matter of objectivity. It was a sheet of paper (but defined as a page) that served no purpose other than to demonstrate that it was a blank page inserted between other pages. By signifying its non-function it became oddly functional - causing a moment of conjecture, a period of contemplation, a brief pause for idle thoughts.
Jenny Holzer, television texts, 1990I recalled art where text or language is central to the work - Jenny Holzer, Bruce Nauman, Ed Ruscha, Barbara Kruger... then my thoughts shifted somewhat Duchamp-ianly, firstly to the famous Magritte painting, The Treachery of Images with the words 'Ceci n'est pas une pipe' underneath the painting of a pipe, then Michael Craig-Martin's glass of water on a shelf as An Oak Tree, and then onto some of Gavin Turk's work (as briefly discussed here).All of these artists bring into question what art is, what art does, says or represents, what purpose art serves. In conceptual terms, it is the artist, not the artwork, that determines whether it is a work of genius or just one of duplicity (or both). Art is art when the artist says it is art, as art created in this context does not always 'speak' for itself...The un-blank blank page was not a work of art, but an art created by association; with just five words it unintentionally gave reference to other works of art...Harold Rosenberg (the American art critic who first coined the phrase 'action painting'), in a short essay in his book 'The Anxious Object' (which is a curious turn of phrase when deciphered two ways), wrote that within the modern discourse on art that 'the current vogue of art books arises from an appetite for knowledge which the book is better suited to satisfy than are the artworks themselves'.An appreciation of art may arise out of prior ignorance and subsequent enlightenment when viewing the artwork, but deeper knowledge or understanding often comes from the supporting commentary or textual analysis and not the actual artwork. This is also due in part, as Rosenberg then highlighted, that the experience of 'real art' is a rare event when compared to our exposure to reproductions of art in books - this secondary source of art is easier to access and therefore more widely appreciated as art. Rosenberg called such art books a substitute for the gallery experience - an imaginary museum.
Matthew Higgs, Minimal Art, 2008When art needs words to explain it, save time (and paper) and use them as the artwork. Higgs' work above is an appropriated page from an old art book, and it touches upon the same issues that Rosenberg raised. Rosenberg declares that '[art] has become nothing else than what is said about it [...] in which the artist and the historian-critic compete for the last word'. The work of art serves to illustrate or confirm the (original) concept, but the concept becomes even more tangible with the addition of words. Art also needs documentation in the form of books or catalogues to acknowledge the emphemeral nature of some works of art - books help preserve its status as art long after the event. Rosenberg also suggests that the longevity of the book elevates art by proxy; the reproduction is even more valued when the original is lost or hidden from public view, gathering dust in a dark vault.However, there still seems to be (in simplistic terms) opposing viewpoints when discussing what art is: 1) that art should speak for itself, it needs no words to justify it and it is open to the viewer's interpretation or, 2) that art requires or benefits from the 'voice' of the artist or the critical commentary of others. The use of words or language helps make the art more art, the artist's intention is a part of the work and that requires some words too...Even the unintentional is made into art if you take the time to fill in the blanks...