Lawrence Weiner

Lawrence Weiner
11 February - 11 March, 2017

Sydney is pleased to present three of Lawrence Weiner’s early video works, alongside a series of collages and drawings that have never been shown before. The video works, titled A Structure of, Do You Believe In Water, and There But For—were made in New York City during the late 70’s and early 80’s. Some of the collages and drawings were made in Sydney in 1986 while visiting Australia for the first time, while others were sent to Sydney from New York as gifts for a friend. They have been in a private collection until now, and are a tangible remnant of his time here in Sydney, and the relationships he formed over that period. The collages combine text, photographs and graphic elements to form narrative tableaus that traverse Sydney as a psycho-geographic site.

By creating a temporal and spatial dialogue between the videos and the collages (created 6 years and an ocean apart) the exhibition also highlights the kind of interpersonal relationships that shaped art practice at that time. Artists in New York City and in Sydney continue to self organize: creating new spaces to show work, exchanging ideas, and generating their own context. This show is inspired by these non-institutional modes of practice, and Sydney hopes to extend and contribute to this ongoing conversation between artists, independent spaces, and the cities in which they exist.

Sydney would like to thank Lawrence Weiner and Michael Hobbs for their generosity and support