The following exercises are structured to sequentially build on each other. We encourage you to consider how their learning objectives develop as you adapt these exercises to your teaching activities.

Lawrence Weiner is known as one of the founding figures of conceptual art. His sculptures and installations pioneered the use of language as a sculptural material, redefining the relationship of “human beings to objects & objects to objects in relation to human beings." By transforming how we see art, he transforms how we read the world.

Weiner was born in 1942 in the Bronx. He studied at Stuyvesant High School, developing particular interests in philosophy and linguistics. Following graduation, he journeyed throughout the United States while working on shipping docks, railways, and organizing with workers’ unions. Later years were spent between New York and Amsterdam, where he lived on a houseboat. These experiences fueled a strong commitment to democratic principles of equality and social justice. Through motifs of transportation and navigation, his work emphasises travel as a metaphor for individual and social change.

Weiner’s artistic practice primarily developed through independent study and friendships with fellow artists. New York City’s urban surrounding was a key influence, prompting broader interest in the relationship between language, social structures, and public space. As Weiner has stated, “I grew up in a city where i read the walls... I love to put work of mine out on the walls and let people read it. Some will remember it and then somebody else comes along and puts something else over it.”

Throughout the 1960s, Weiner’s early paintings investigated the psychological and social processes of perception, extending the challenge to the autonomy and authority of individual artworks initially mounted by minimalism in the US. A defining turn emerged with Weiner’s 1968 installation, "Staples, Stakes, Twine, Turf": when this outdoor installation was disturbed by some passersby, Weiner realised that what he had conceived as a site-specific artwork was in fact a set of materials arranged by a linguistic proposition. This revelation prompted Weiner’s foundational 1969 “Statement of Intent”:

1. The artist may construct the piece.
2. The piece may be fabricated.
3. The piece need not be built.

Weiner’s “Statement” has remained the guiding principle of his practice, as well as a core idea of Conceptual art. This principle informs Weiner’s use of artist’s books, film, sculpture, and installation as formats that emphasize accessible and economical distribution.