Joseph Kosuth Tabula Rasa (14 Times)

Almine Rech Shanghai is pleased to present Tabula Rasa (14 Times), comprised of Joseph Kosuth’s neon works in eight colors titled ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four (Orwell)’ in both Chinese and English that pose the question Any Message? 

In this recent series, Kosuth appropriates text from George Orwell’s 1948 dystopian novel 1984, a story which is a tragic illustration of what the world would be without the freedom to think and evaluate truth. Orwell’s unanswered question is mediated through Kosuth’s signature use of neon, toggling back and forth between languages and colors, demanding an answer of the viewer.

A pioneer of Conceptual art, throughout his career, Kosuth has insisted on maintaining the integrity and rigor of his fundamental insight that the ‘visual’ component of art is only one part of a complex structure that produces meaning within art, and not its basis. Since the 1960s, Kosuth has used inherited meanings, particularly language-based categories, such as quotes, names, and definitions, to construct new meaning in visual work. His work poses fundamental questions about the presentation and reception of art by investigating the very categories that define what art is. He selects elements for his work from contexts outside of visual art: philosophy, literature, history, popular culture, dictionaries, scientific theory, and linguistics, among others. 

- Joseph Kosuth Studio

阿尔敏·莱希 - 上海荣幸呈现《白板（14次）》，将展出约瑟夫·科苏斯名为《1984（奥威尔）》的八色霓虹灯管装置作品，该系列作品由中英文组成，向观者们发出提问“任何信息？”

在最近的这个系列中，科苏斯挪用了乔治·奥威尔 1948 年撰写的反乌托邦小说 《1984》 中的文本。《1984》是一个悲剧性的例证，展现了一个没有自由思考和评估真理的世界。奥威尔悬而未决的问题是通过科苏斯对霓虹灯的标志性使用来调解的，通过在语言和颜色之间来回切换，以请求观众回答这个问题。
作为观念艺术（Conceptual art）的先驱，在他的整个职业生涯中，科苏特一直坚持保持其基本见解的完整性和严谨性，即艺术的“视觉”部分只是在艺术中产生意义的复杂结构的一部分，而不是其基础。自 1960 年代以来，科苏斯运用如引用、名称和定义等语言类元素，来构建视觉作品的新意义。他的作品通过研究定义什么是艺术的类别，提出了关于艺术的呈现和接受的基本问题。他从视觉艺术之外的背景中为其作品选择元素，如哲学、文学、历史、流行文化、词典、科学理论和语言学等。

文/约瑟夫·科苏斯工作室