Lawrence Weiner

WITHIN A REALM OF DISTANCE CAT.1110

Language + the materials referred to

664 x 58.8 cm

Executed in 2015

ABOUT THE ARTIST

American artist Lawrence Weiner (born 1942) is one of the central figures of conceptual art since the 1960s. He works with text and words, always produced in a signature typeface and bright colours. His text can appear anywhere, such as on walls, floors, the sides of public buildings, bridges and busses, and can be reproduced in any size and material, or simply exist as words without ever being “produced” into an installation. This is the key to conceptual art: the idea is the artwork, rather than the physical object.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Weiner explores the poetic as well as graphic potential of language. His artworks combine the aesthetic shape of letters – in his signature, bold, all-capital letters font – with dictums and proverbial sayings which are left open to interpretation. The meaning of this work is certainly mysterious: the phrase WITHIN A REALM OF DISTANCE seems paradoxical, denoting something that is both close and far; something that feels familiar, yet also distant and alien. WITHIN A REALM OF DISTANCE could be a metaphor for The Scandinavian itself, which is located on the outskirts of bustling Copenhagen but seems to erupt from nowhere, from the trees and the hills, like an imagined place, a realm to escape to.