Light Years

Conceptual art can seem like 'art just for artists'.

• The varying degrees of wall text/explanations that are designed to explain or even ruin the 'punch-line' of works seem indecisive of its role to inform the viewer of what they're seeing.
• The organization of the show into smaller categories attempts to make it easier for viewers to take in.
• Aesthetically the whole show seems very sterile because there is a lot of black and white photography accompanied by text
• Pieces are not based on form/aesthetics like a lot of the paintings in the other rooms that the general public comes to museums to 'enjoy'

Aware of the issue with showing works from past collections is always effected by the way the show is presented, I found the varying degrees of trying true to the original presentation vs. the museum's method of presentation distracting

• Resplicing of Bas Jan Ader's three videos of 'falls' into one film
• Some pieces were shown in their original format -slide projectors, film projectors, while others were reformatted: Jan Dibbet's Horizon III was originally show in 35mm, but the museum showed it as a video projection
• Original format/method of presentation added another layer to the work of nostalgia for old technology, changing our understanding of the piece
• The pedestal and double sided frames for the postcards

Even though the movement was in the past, the use of photography in various manners was refreshing and made it worth seeing in real life because the work would not translate at all online, which is how most of us experience photography today.

• Giovanni Anselmo Entering The Work (1971) - printed on fabric, very large piece
• Bruce Nauman First Hologram Series - definitely would not translate into a jpg
• Agnes Denes Human Dust (1969) - the relationship between the actual object/sculpture vs. photo of the object vs. the text explaining where the object came from
• Experience of coming into contact with a slide projector (sounds of mechanics, aesthetics) vs. maybe seeing it online as a video

The inclusion of text with photography in many of the works maybe disproves the notion that 'a photograph is worth a 1000 words'. The text often elevates the meaning of the work, gives more context, or an extra layer of understanding.

• Allen Ruppersberg Where's Al - the installation of photographs accompanied by snippets of conversation
• Vito Acconci's pieces with the text written in chalk (temporality) describing the photographs which are apart of it (permanence)
• Joseph Kosuth Art as Idea: Nothing - doesn't even have a traditional photograph
• A variety of artist books were displayed