Fade In: John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet 1972
Still from Teaching a Plant the Alphabet
For this edition of Fade In, the VAC presents John Baldessari’s early seventies video, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet. Created as an exercise in futility, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet is an absurdist lesson in cognition and recognition. Known for creating the illogic from a logical construct and making nonsense from sense, this tape documents Baldessari’s response to Joseph Beuys’s influential performance, How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare. Baldessari’s approach here is characteristically subtle and ironic, involving ordinary objects and a seemingly banal task.
NOTE: This screening of Teaching a Plant the Alphabet will be silent. To view the video in it's original and intended form with sound, please visit The University's Fine Arts Library where a copy is available for viewing.
