Art

Perplexed in Public: Lawrence Weiner on the Languages that Have Defined Him

Lawrence Weiner in his studio, 2019.
Lawrence Weiner in his studio, 2019.

"You might be surprising." Lawrence Weiner reassures me, as we sit down to speak in the garden-level studio of his glass-and-steel Greenwich Village townhouse. I’m wildly intimidated and pretty sure I bore him but he’s too warm, too charming to let it show. Throughout the interview, he alternates between frankness and playful provocation, opining on donkeys who rape women, harvesting ambergris for the war effort, Japan’s comfort women, and how the “cosmetics industry is probably the most useless thing in the entire world.”

To read this article please or for culturedmag.com for free.