1998/1999

In 1998, I sent letters to sixty artists, asking them to participate in a project about the resurgent interest in Conceptual Art. Forty artists agreed to respond to the following statement: "Briefly describe a conceptual art work, not your own, of the period between 1965 and 1975, which you personally witnessed/experienced at the time. For the sake of this project, the definition of conceptual art would be broad enough to encompass such phenomena of that period as actions documented through drawings, photographs, film, and video; concepts executed in the form of drawings or photographs; objects where the end product is primarily a record of the precipitant concept, and performative activities which sought to question the conventions of dance and theater."

Twenty-two artists were recorded. They were told not to mention their own names, the names of the artists whose work they described, or the titles of the works. They could mention dates and locations, but were asked not to refresh their memories through research. While their accounts were being recorded, their hands were videotaped in close-up. In the audio-video installation, the silent video of their large projected hands play in a room adjacent to the audio room consisting of the artists anonymous voices.

The following artists contributed their accounts (listed here in alphabetical order): Vito Acconci, Dennis Adams, Mac Adams, Connie Beckley, Dara Birnbaum, Mel Bochner, Hans Haacke, Eileen Hickey-Hulme, Mary Kelly, Joyce Kozloff, Louise Lawler, Les Levine, Jonas Mekas, Alan McCollum, Howardena Pindell, Lucio Pozzi, Yvonne Rainer, Dorothea Rockburne, Al Ruppersberg, Carolee Schneemann, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling.

(Video loop, 55:00, Sound loop, 1:59:59)

Edition of 3. an inadequate history of conceptual art is in the following collections:

The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1/3)

At left is an excerpt of the video and audio elements of the project, combined. See this link for installation views:

http://silviakolbowski.com/projectDetail.cfm?ID=32

Find images of the installations here.

Click here for Transcript Excerpt

Downloadable texts: