Turning Some Pages

Directed by Lawrence Weiner

Turning Some Pages was produced in conjunction with the printing of a limited edition journal of the same name by the Howard Smith Paper Group, a British paper merchant. The action of reading a book informs the structure of this motion drawing. Abstract arrangements of shapes and images of dice are interspersed with cryptic aphorisms ("With the addition of explicit meaning, the implicit sense of the throw of the dice becomes clear"); arrows suggest the turning of a page. Weiner adds another layer of complexity and enigma by repurposing his droll 1981 audio work Where It Came From as a soundtrack. Accompanied by Roma Baran on the piano, Weiner matter-of-factly explains: "Art is not a metaphor upon the relationship of human beings to objects and objects to objects in relation to human beings, but a representation of an empirical existing fact."