Movie Details
Theatrical Release:January 1st, 1972
Original Language:English
Teaching a Plant the Alphabet (1972)
18 minJan 1st, 1972
A rather perverse exercise in futility this tape documents Baldessaris response to Joseph Beuyss influential performance How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare Baldessaris approach here is characteristically subtle and ironic involving ordinary objects and a seemingly banal task The philosophical underpinnings of Baldessaris exercise are structuralist theories about the opaque and artificial nature of language as a system of signs Using a common houseplant to represent nature and instructional flashcards to represent the alphabet Baldessari ironically illustrates this theorem That language is the structuring element of the tapethe length of the tape was determined by the number of letters in the alphabetenforces the connection between language and art a recurrent theme in Baldessaris work
DirectorJohn Baldessari
