A LINE IS A LINE FOR ALL THAT
Andrew Graham-Dixon: Tell me why this is a drawing. Why is it a drawing and not a text?
Lawrence Weiner: Oh, using text for drawing is no problem. It tells you something. But drawing is explicit. Drawing is not implicit; there’s nothing hidden in a drawing. When you draw for people, you’re drawing something to tell them: it’s a message.
This is obviously drawn. And the typeface is something I designed. And of course I would design a typeface that I could draw!
AGD: I mean, I associate your work, maybe from an earlier phase in your career, as simply being words. Word art.
LW: No, that’s sculpture! This is drawing! [AGD laughs] I see language and the materials referred to as making sculpture. But I was asked here to do a series of drawings. There is a difference.
AGD: I’m struggling, I am struggling, I mean - just slightly -
LW: Why are you struggling? Why is it so complicated?
AGD: I don’t - I don’t know, I’m struggling with the idea that that isn’t a sculpture. When arguably I can…
LW: A sculpture is a fact of material relationship. ‘A line is a line for all that’ is a phrase that is not sculptural. It’s just talking about itself. Self-referential things are not art. [AGD laughs] Sorry!
AGD: Augh! My brain is exploding.
LW: Oh, I hope not. I could live without the mess all over my jacket.
