Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from January, 2021

"The Way in Which Language Signifies Is Mirrored in Its Use"

The above phrase is a quote from Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)  who wrote about the relationship between concept and form in regards to the philosophy of language. Joseph Kosuth borrowed this phrase to create his artwork.  Toledo, Ohio born artist Joseph Kosuth (1945), a pioneer of conceptual art, has been creating neon light words/phrase/sentence installations since the 1960s. "The Way in Which Language Signifies is Mirrored in Its Use" was installed at the Toledo Museum of Art (TMA), at the Libbey Court, in 2019 (TMA# 2019.69A-R).  What is our understanding of the artwork? Joseph Kosuth has used the walls of the museum as a canvas, where he wrote in neon white lights a phrase that contains, among others, three important words: way, language and mirror. The phrase is written in the South wall of the main meeting room of the second floor of the art museum. The artwork is hardly noticed unless one looks up towards the ceiling of the room.  What ...