Books
Excerpt from Lee Lozano: Language Pieces
Lee Lozano was at the vanguard of forming an art practice inextricable from the life she lived: her medium was that of daily experience, governed by and filtered through the rules and parameters she would set in her various ‘language pieces.’ Forty-six of those pieces are gathered together in the eponymous book, co-published by Hauser & Wirth Publishers and The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh.
Reproduced here is Lozano’s ‘No-Grass Piece,’ which follows ‘Grass Piece,’ in which the artist planned to ‘MAKE A GOOD SCORE, A LID OR MORE OF EXCELLENT GRASS. SMOKE IT ‘UP’ AS FAST AS YOU CAN. STAY HIGH ALL DAY, EVERY DAY. SEE WHAT HAPPENS.’ Picking up where ‘Grass Piece’ left off, Lozano aims to ‘GO WITHOUT GRASS FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF TIME AS GRASS PIECE.’
What ensues in Lozano’s documentation of this piece is a hyperaware analysis of her own psychological states, played out in the context of her greater artistic practice and social life. Rather than acting encumbered by language in the description of her experience, Lozano leans into the play that text affords her, and constantly explores the capacity for her words to have both shifting and precise meanings. Lozano writes in ‘Grass Piece,’ ‘SEEK THE EXTREMES, THAT’S WHERE ALL THE ACTION IS.’ ‘No-Grass Piece’ follows this imperative, and the artist’s insight on that action shines throughout.
