Azima Salama

900203671
ARTV4311

Language as a Conceptual Medium: Discursive Reasonings

Conceptual Art is a term that emerged in the 1960s which refers to art practices in which
the idea behind the work is more important than the work itself, or the concept itself can be
considered the work. Conceptual art; also referred to as conceptualism, post-object art, and
art-as-idea; exists at the liminal intersection of the redefinition of contemporary art. Artists have
integrated and employed unique systems of language, which allows for the deconstruction,
reinterpretation, and transformation of the typical and traditional uses of language. Movements
such as dadaism, Fluxus, Futurism, the Situationist International, and others, broadened the range
of what aesthetic definitions are known to be. Their practice often involved the inclusion and
exclusion of language, both intentional and unintentional, albeit always revolving around ideas.
While ideas and concepts exist as abstract entities, they are able to manifest through visual and
literary mediums. Literary mediums are by no means exclusive to traditional writing and reading
but manipulate and reconfigure the entire essence and function of language: communication. It is
entirely impossible to disconnect concepts from language and its respective limitations, rules,
and systems; however, the elements and functions of the systems are manipulated in conceptual
practices to create invented systems, separate from those that typically restrict abstract and visual
manifestations of concepts. Several artists and art theorists have demonstrated and dissected the
unique uses of language systems in conceptual artwork through deconstruction, reconfiguration,
dematerialization, and acknowledgement of it as a medium.

Conceptualism dissolves the boundary separating criticism and art, giving way to literary
conceptualism (Ulmer 1977). In Gregory L. Ulmer’s article Borges and Conceptual Art, he
argues that Jorge Luis Borges is a literary conceptualist and provides speculations regarding
discourse on the employment of language and literature in conceptual art. Borges’ theorization of
conceptualism revolves around the suppression of the object, replacing traditional literary work
with a pseudo-essay that revolves around imaginary or invented language and literature, from
which two approaches emerge. The first is the new significance placed on process, procedures,
and activities rather than objects and finished outcomes, by which an interactive dynamic
emerges in the artist-work-audience paradigm (Ulmer 1977). An example of this is Robert
Barry’s work with invisible materials such as gas and radio waves. This begs the question of
whether language exists as an invisible medium that transcends visual manifestations, although it
may mediate between concept and interpretation as visual form. Another approach, as practiced
by the Art-Language group, is the investigation into what can and cannot be defined as art,
emphasizing verbal and written theory over visual practice, leading to a complete elimination of
criticism (Ulmer 1977). Both approaches redefine the traditional elements and functions of art
pre-conceptualism through the reconfiguration and reinvention of language as a medium. The
notion of an authorless producer is a key part of Borges’ conceptualism, as artists are then
rendered producers and translators of pre-existing ideas, concepts, and text that they simply
deconstruct and reconstruct; this is the case with language as an artistic medium. Roland Barthes,
a structuralist, also employs this impersonal, interpretive, and citational ideology contrasting the
idea of traditional expressionist practices through his 1967 essay The Death of the Author. The
separation of and distinction between intention and interpretation is a fundamental concept to
consider in the context of language and literature in conceptualism.

Peter Osborne references Terry Atkinson’s article Concerning the Article: The
Dematerialization of Art in his book Conceptual Art: “Conceptual Art was never about was
never quite sure where the work was,” then stating that this was the most productive use of
language in a concept of art income in the context of art since the 1960s (Osborne 2005; Lippard
1997). However, Osborne does not fail to mention that the visual dynamic of language is
irrelevant, even with the intention to negate visual form is present. This represents a shift that
emerged in the same area from ideas implemented visually towards ideas implemented
conceptually, through language or the manipulation of it. The dematerialization of art arose as a
result of a shift from object-based to idea-based art. However, the rhetorical effectiveness of
dematerialization fails to address how ideas in the materiality and the material structures exist
co-constituently (Blacksell 2013). It is difficult to describe the person-object-idea paradigm
when the material object is eliminated. Concepts, social relations, and context are intentionally
circumscribed ideologically upon a linguistic basis. Language itself exists as a medium of
material essence in the construction of conceptual art practices, and objects mediate this material
essence. Therefore, the integration of both of Borges’ aforementioned approaches is imperative
to be considered in tangent with the acknowledgment that a material or visual element mediates
between the abstraction and reinvention of language systems in a conceptualist context.
 Bibliography

Blacksell, Ruth. “From Looking to Reading: Text-Based Conceptual Art and Typographic
Discourse.” Design Issues 29, no. 2 (2013): 60–81. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24266994.

Lippard, Lucy R. 1997. Six Years: The Dematerialization of the Art Object from 1966 to 1972.
Univ of California Press.

Osborne, Peter. 2005. Conceptual Art.

Ulmer, Gregory L. 1977. “Borges and Conceptual Art.” Boundary 2.

https://doi.org/10.2307/302567.