teaching a plant the alphabet (1972), john baldessari
Finding this video still outrageously hilarious at 2:15 a.m. From an interview with Tate Etc.:
JESSICA MORGAN Around this time you made a series of video works which have now become iconic pieces – such as I Am Making Art (1971), where you make very simple movements with your body; Baldessari Sings LeWitt (1972), in which you put Sol LeWitt’s theoretical reflections on art to music; and Teaching a Plant the Alphabet(1972).
JOHN BALDESSARI Yeah. By that time I was teaching at the Californian Institute of Arts (CalArts). The Sony Portapak had come out and at CalArts we had 26 of them. Can you believe that? So every artist started making videos.
JESSICA MORGAN Your choice of subject matter seemed like a spoof on other artists.
JOHN BALDESSARI I would make these videos on a Sunday, and they were meant just for me and my students.
JESSICA MORGAN They made very conscious references to the art of the time though…
JOHN BALDESSARI I thought conceptual art at that time was too pedantic. There were many ways artists used language, so why not try some other way? I was, of course, aware of the idea that an artist makes choices – if I made any little body movement in I Am Making Art, that was a choice, so I’d just made art. I love pushing things to their logical extreme, which at some point becomes ridiculous if you go with it far enough.Teaching a Plant the Alphabet was done during the hippy times. There were books about how to communicate with your plants. I thought, okay, I guess’ll start with the alphabet and then we’ll talk…
(via buddygolly)
