A few references of artists creating content using language. Some use found content and some generate the content on their own.
The Address Book, Sophie Calle(2012)
Sophie Calle found an address book on the subway and contacted all the people in it, asking for a description of the owner. The book houses the descriptions and conversations with the people in the address book. The book was originally written in the 80s, but it angered the owner and she promised not to publish this work until after his death.
TUESDAY, THIERRY L., 4:00–5:30 P.M.
“I chose his name at random. I could not tell you why. He invites me to his place and offers me a whiskey. I reveal the identity of the owner of the address book. He barely knows him.
“I’m not an intimate friend of his, and that’s what embarrasses me the most. I can tell you about his looks. What’s very striking about him is that his eyes are hidden behind his glasses. He looks like he is not looking. He wears very conspicuous glasses. Bad eyesight, definitely. Physically, he looks like he walked out of a Marx Brothers’ movie. I see his body, the way he walks—kind of clumsy, nearsighted. These are things I really like. He’s warm and shy, an unusual combination. A constant stream of words, and yet total reserve . . . He must be in his forties . . . Has a salt-and-pepper mustache . . . He’s a friendly person, intelligent and pretty detached from the world . . . A good sense of humor . . . He would be a cool Marx Brother, a dispassionate clown. I’m sure he is fascinated by Woody Allen. But he would be a flat Woody Allen, with no pizzazz. It’s hard to think of what more to say.”
–excerpt from the book
Jenny Holzer
“see them, read them, laugh at them, and be provoked by them,'it's fun wandering around other people's minds. In the'Truisms,' I wanted to write cliches and I was successful. You only have a few seconds to catch people, so you can't do long, reasoned arguments. The'Truisms' don't make value judgments, but they express truth for their original speakers. I wanted the viewer to make his way through them and maybe gain some tolerance.” – Jenny Holzer
Original truisms
Truisms, and other of Holzer’s work, are projected on screens.
December 1, 2018 – On World AIDs day, Holzer projected her phrases over a series of illuminated trucks around New York City. #LightTheFight
1-900-All-Karen, Karen Finley(1998)
Called this number and taped recordings of performance artist, Karen Finley, would play her talking about motherhood, politics, etc.
Today series / Date paintings. A series of paintings developed over the course of 5 decades. The date is composed in the language and convention of the place where Kawara made the painting. Some of the paintings include newspaper clippings of that day’s post. How does that affect the piece?
“The paintings were produced meticulously over the course of many hours according to a series of steps that never varied. If a painting was not finished by midnight, he destroyed it.
Kawara’s choice of dates appears to follow no overall principle. Some dates may have been personally or historically significant. Above all, however, the Today series addresses each day as its own entity within the larger context of the regularized passage of time. The series speaks to the idea that the calendar is a human construct, and that quantifications of time are shaped by cultural contexts and personal experiences.:
The Address Book, Sophie Calle (2012)
Jenny Holzer
1-900-All-Karen, Karen Finley (1998)
Barbara Kruger
On Kawara
Emmett Williams – Sweethearts (1968)