clippings, from the printed to the digital: language...

ARTH 648B-2 Envisioning Digital and Virtual Forms of Exhibitions: The Curatorial Translation of Theory into Practice, 2012

CLIPPINGS, FROM THE PRINTED TO THE DIGITAL: LANGUAGE-BASED ART FROM GORDON LEBREDT AND GERMAINE KOH Béatrice Cloutier-Trépanier Indebted to avant-garde movements such as Dada, Surrealism, Conceptualism, and to practices of

automatic writing and poetry, the use of text as medium and subject in recent art practices is, as

art historian and curator Terri Cohn indicates, a “strategy [that] appeared historically as a desire

among artists to undermine existing artistic and social conventions, […] reflecting and

epitomizing contemporary concerns with communication.”1

“Clippings: From the Printed to the Digital” consists of four textual works by Canadian artists

Germaine Koh (b. 1967) and Gordon Lebredt (1948-2011). The artists are united in this

exhibition because of their use of a linguistic medium and intent to problematize conventions

about the production, reproduction, and dissemination of art. The digitalization of these works in

this virtual exhibition speaks of an evolution in terms of available and current technologies, and

comments on their interactive, participatory potential in this on-line internet embodiment.

The selection includes printed works on paper meant for distribution. Gordon Lebredt’s

intercessions in Canadian art magazines triggers reflection on the translation of “published”

works on paper into digital format, while the impetus of dissemination behind both Germaine

Koh’s classified ads and postcards series relates to processes of interpersonal communication.

The text used in these interventions in public space is as important as the interest in the medium.


The text-based artwork is an ideal practice to transfer into a digital format because of the focus on

language and impetus to undermine the technological writing instruments used in their

production. This online exhibition furthers the original distribution impulse behind these artworks

by exploring the shifting, heightened potential of text-based art in digital format.


Germaine Koh Journal 1995-ongoing Series of classified ads in various daily newspapers, title varies according to headings of local newspapers. http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=en&mkey=14136&title=classified+ad+project%2C+%3Ci%3E1+of+3+from+series%3C%2Fi%3E&artist=Koh%2C+Germaine&link_id=1773


Germaine Koh is an artist based in Vancouver, although the artist describes herself as having no

fixed address.2 Her work, exhibited across Canada and abroad, demonstrates an acute

consideration of the private/public dichotomy. Working mostly in the realm of conceptual art, her

practice embodies a fascination with everyday life and the banal objects associated with it.

Ongoing since 1995, her series Classified Ad Project, illustrates contemporary concerns about

language, both as an artistic medium and as a means of communication. Her insertion of banal

yet mysterious short texts in the classified ad section of various newspapers criticizes

contemporary modes of communication, and their potential failure to create a sense of

community. Her short posts, public yet anonymous, effectively challenge the traditional

distinctions between private and public spheres. Some of her journal entries made public include:

“8 April. Ran into A and S, who solved my problem. Had dinner, beer. I like them.” and “I

picked another fight last night. Why do I do it? I’ve been forgiven, as always.”

About this series, Koh writes:

I use the real time and repetition embedded in these spaces to relate little

more than the passing of time, gently magnifying its banality and arguing

for the monumentality of daily preoccupations. Executed anonymously, this

work's reception is as unknowable as its potential audience is wide, though

part of its poignancy lies in the assumption that many of the activities I

describe might be familiar to many of the unknown people who happen to

read them. Although the events are particular to me, they thus might seem to

represent certain shared collective experiences.3


Veering away from the primarily commercial intent of traditional classified ads, Koh intends to

direct the reader’s attention toward the similarities of experience, pointing at collective and

shared sentiments of melancholic sadness which is palpable in ads such as “Wanted-A hopeless

romantic, who can make me laugh.”4

The newspapers used in this project were the ones readily available in the cities in which Koh

had exhibitions. Following their insertion amongst classified ads, her personal journal entries

were later exposed on commercial billboards, road signs and illuminated message boards in

various North American cities.


Germaine Koh Sightings Series 1992-1998 4 x 6 in. Offset postcards printed from found snapshot, editions of 1,500-2,500 each http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=fr&mkey=14123&title=Sightings%2C+%3Ci%3E1+of+3+postcards+from+the+series%3C%2Fi%3E&artist=Koh%2C+Germaine&link_id=1773


Sightings (1992-98) is a series of postcards which integrate as their main subject discarded

photographs Koh allegedly finds in places such as city sidewalks and park trash cans. Printed in

editions of 1000 to 2500 they were made available to audiences for a dollar each. Koh explains

the distribution of these postcards: “This particular project conceptually needed to be produced in

a cheap form that would eventually disappear, so it happens to be one case where the concept

precludes a finished--ie. Permanent or commercially viable product.”5 The caption on the back of

each card tells the beholder the date, site and circumstances of the find, any relevant

particularities as well as its publication date and Koh’s personal address. Yet again, this series

plays on ways to increase communication, possibly between the artist and her audience.

Perhaps more important than the consumable aspect of the postcards is Koh’s recycling and

exposure of anonymous, rejected personal photographs. By repurposing discarded images, Koh

reactivates the potential narratives related to those photographs: Who are these people enjoying a

bottle of champagne in what appears to be an outdoor celebration? What memories and emotions

are associated with them? And more importantly, why were the photographs rejected? On the

intersection of the private photographs and their public repurposing, Koh writes: “Traveling the

anonymous realm between lost and found, they enigmatically mark the passage of specific people

through particular times and spaces. The project recognizes that the imagery and function of both

snapshots and postcards are nevertheless public forms located squarely in popular space.”6 The

impetus behind the format interface of the postcards implies their dissemination and private use.


Gordon Lebredt “In a Manner of Speaking” 1986-87 Magazine insert, Impulse Magazine 13: 2 (1986-87). http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=fr&mkey=70759&title=%26quot%3BIn+a+manner+of+speaking%26quot%3B%2C+%3Ci%3Emagazine+spread%3C%2Fi%3E&artist=Lebredt%2C+Gordon&link_id=218

Gordon Lebredt was a Winnipeg artist and art critic. His artistic and writing practices were

intertwined, as his works often included elements of language and philosophy. Strongly anchored

in conceptualism, his art embodies concerns with the role of language and vision, and how they

function in conjunction with one another. Lebredt coined the term “nonworks,” to explain his

turning away from materialism to focus on ideas, inevitably formed and informed by language.

Nonworks are “a parallel body of unrealized work-a sprawling hypothetical topology of surfaces,


abutments, expanses and disjunctions in which words, objects and images struggle to find and

mark their place, […] a body of work that exists only as possibility.”7 As such, the immateriality

of the nonworks, in their proposal form, embodies Lebredt’s concerns.

“In a Manner of Speaking,” inserted in Impulse Magazine in 1986-87, is a double-page spread

comprised of an unembellished black and white graphic of a human hand holding a knife in a

threatening fashion. The black page and white linear graphic counters the usual typographic

composition of the printed page. This inversion can be interpreted as a signal of difference,

separating Lebredt’s pages from the rest of the magazine. Composed by the artist, the cryptic

accompanying text invites the viewer to reflect on the relation of the title to the content of the

work. Expressions such as “Speaking, not speaking” and “translations” suggest potential

communication breakdowns and misinterpretations. While the words themselves are of

undeniable importance to “In a Manner of Speaking,” the use of a language-based medium, the

magazine, as a vehicle for Lebredt’s art production, is also significant. By imbedding his

enigmatic work in a publication, he blurs the boundaries and associations of materiality with the

traditional, autonomous art object.


Gordon Lebredt Ten Points for YYZ Now 1989-1990 http://ccca.concordia.ca/artists/work_detail.html?languagePref=fr&mkey=70523&title=Ten+points+for+YYZ%26%23151%3Bnow%2C+%3Ci%3Emagazine+spread%3C%2Fi%3E&artist=Lebredt%2C+Gordon&link_id=218


In Ten Points for YYZ, (1989-1990) Lebredt uses his puzzling writing to problematize the use of

language and question the assumption that language is a clear and straightforward method of

communication. Lebredt’s Ten Points is a perplexing, philosophical enquiry into the meaning of

the gallery space at YYZ, and how it operates on spatial and temporal levels.

The ten points, or observations, originally published in a magazine appeared on the walls of the

YYZ gallery nearly fifteen years after its inception. Lebredt’s manifesto concerning the purpose

of the YYZ gallery was thus exposed in the exact space where it was originally discussed.

Founded as an artist-run centre in 1979, YYZ offered exhibition opportunities to artists whose

works were not commercially viable. The gallery's initial intent to promote “innovative

programming that sought to combine theory and practice and to encourage dialogue between a

variety of communities and audiences” is very much alive today in its dynamic residency

program and publishing house.

In reference to Lebredt and the gallery as a medium of communication, curator Andrew Kear

writes: "Gordon's work has always relied on being given a specific institutional situation from

which to form itself, the raw materials being the institutions themselves, the exhibition occasion

itself. Galleries, museums and artist-run centres were not primarily important to Lebredt as

neutral placeholders of his work but as complicit contributors to the experience of it.”8 The

transferability of Lebredt's work to the gallery wall is crucial in this regard, the fact that its form

could be manipulated and content revitalized years after its original incarnation. In all these

aspects Ten Points for YYZ is a poignant example of Lebredt's concept of the "nonwork" as the

conveyor and disseminator of ideas and the mutability of language.


NOTES 1 Terri Cohn, “Some Rumination on Recent California Art Practices: Textual Objectives, Objectified Text,”

Sculpture 19:7 (Summer 2000): 31. 2 Samir Gandesha,“Threshold,” Germaine Koh (Vancouver: CJ Press, 2009) 1. 3 Germaine Koh, accessed October 12, 2012 www.germainekoh.com. 4 Chris Zdeb, “Life…As Art Among Classified Ads,” Edmonton Journal (October 23, 2000): C1. 5 Andrew Kear, “Gordon Lebredt: Nonworks 1975-2008,” Border Crossings 30:3 (Sep-Nov 2011): 145. 6 Germaine Koh. 7 “Gordon Lebredt,” Art Metropole, accessed December 18, 2012

http://www.artmetropole.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shop.FA_dsp_browse_details&InventoryUnitsID=0a7f78e6-1b70-4483-a06a-5fb5d6b679cf&CategoryID=&UnitsType=0_0.

8 Kear, 145.


BIBLIOGRAPHY “Gordon Lebredt.” Art Metropole. Accessed December 18, 2012.

http://www.artmetropole.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=shop.FA_dsp_browse_details&InventoryUnitsID=0a7f78e6-1b70-4483-a06a-5fb5d6b679cf&CategoryID=&UnitsType=0_0.

Cohn, Terri. “Some Rumination on Recent California Art Practices: Textual Objectives,

Objectified Text.” Sculpture 19:7 (Summer 2000): 30-5. Gandesha, Samir. “Theshold.” Germaine Koh. Vancouver: CJ Press, 2009. Hapkemeyer, Andreas, and Peter Weiermair. Photo Text Text Photo: The Synthesis of

Photography and Text in Contemporary Art. Bozen and Frankfurt: Edition Stemmle AG, 1996.

Holubizky, Ihor. “Postcards from the edge.” Canadian Art 16:1 (1999): 34-8. Kear, Andrew. “Gordon Lebredt: Nonworks 1975-2008.” Border Crossings 30:3 (September-

November 2011): 145-146. Germaine Koh. Accessed October 12, 2012. www.germainekoh.com. Lebredt, Gordon. Gordon Lebredt: Non-Work 1975-2008. Winnipeg: Plug In Editions, 2011. Loubier, Patrice. “De l'anonymat contemporain, entre banalité et forme réticulaire.” Parachute

109 (January/March 2003): 60-71. Selby, Aimee, ed. Art and Text. London: Black Dog, 2009. Zdeb, Chris. “Life…As Art Among Classified Ads.” Edmonton Journal (October 23, 2000): C1.

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