Conceptual Art: A Critical Anthology - uncopy

While it is true that the art pressures from the center are always present on the periphery
(it is part of the relation of dependence first established by colonialism), this does not mean
that central aesthetics have to serve, or do serve, the same purposes here, or that expressions on
the periphery can be comprehended through the tools and values of the center. Thus, canonical
“conceptual art” filters and distorts the perception of some manifestations that may overlap
with it by means of superficial stylistic symptoms. Also, art history is usually written with a
central clock running as a reference. I believe in the importance of local time-keeping when
one tries to understand local events, which sometimes throws a monkey wrench into the neat
original-derivative classification.
B.S.: Can you tell me more specifically what it was about the “enclosed conceptual art
stylistic definition” that you were responding to in your work at the end of the 1960s? Were
there particular art works or particular artists that represented that position for you? If so, how
did that response manifest itself in your work and thinking?
L.C.: When I started to do “conceptual” work in 1966 I was not yet aware of works by
other people. In my case the work developed as a reaction to the industrial finish of minimal
art and the expense involved in the production of those pieces. I figured that carrying that
thinking process to an extreme, I could conceive of taking the Empire State Building and have
it redone in the shape of a “u.” In that thought experiment I decided a) that it was economically
immoral, b) that it betrayed my roots coming from a developing country, c) that the piece
would be totalitarian in its relation to the public and d) that the enunciation of the idea sufficed
and generated an appropriate and less intimidating image in the reader’s mind. I was not interested
in a “style” and in fact, when the term “conceptual” became fashionable, a group that I
was a member of (The New York Graphic Workshop, with my ex-wife Liliana Porter—from
Argentina—and José Guillermo Castillo—from Venezuela) discussed how, for us, “contextual
art” would be a much more fitting term.
By then it was clearer what other artists were doing and that conceptual art was being
treated as another discrete art historical movement rather than as an attitudinal break. I was
not working “against” any artists symbolizing this, but basically ignoring them (which does
not mean that I wasn’t contaminated by them). So the art was not coming from a reaction to
my peers. My interest in pursuing my work was to find an all-encompassing system rather than
an exclusionary one, in which a minimum input would achieve a maximum reaction. Thus
there was room for pedagogy, for politics, and for humor, perception, philosophy or whatever
I felt like. The important issues were a) to help create a politically active and enlightened
public, b) to demystify art and help the viewer become a creator, c) to liberate the viewer of
blake stimson “dada—situationism/tupamaros—conceptualism” 493