OUT OF SIGHT by Lawrence Weiner

OUT OF SIGHT is a site-specific participatory floor installation by the American artist Lawrence Weiner. Using poetic passages of text and graphic visualization, this work engages with people and encourages a dialogue that transcends boundaries. Reminiscent of a game of hopscotch at first glance, OUT OF SIGHT radiates courage and inspiration and invites nimble-footed contemplation. Weiner’s unmistakable typographic text-based works—presented indoors and outdoors, on façades, walls, and floors, in parks, in urban squares, in museums and in schools, as projections and performances—unite thought processes with physical experiences. Sentences like SPIT INTO THE WIND AND HOPE FOR THE BEST and IMAGINED THINGS CAN BE ALTERED TO SUIT, as well as the installation’s central terms EXUBERANCE, ENERGY, HAPPINESS, VISION, VISUALIZATION, ENLIGHTENMENT, SPONTANEITY, and SERENDIPITY, stand for openness to the world, for optimism in difficult times, for self-determination, for solidarity in a society characterized by alienation, for equal opportunities, and for broad possibilities and creative leeway.

OUT OF SIGHT is more than just an artwork; OUT OF SIGHT is an aesthetic experience, a transgenerational encounter. OUT OF SIGHT is a work for everyone. OUT OF SIGHT has been translated into many languages including English, Spanish, Mandarin, Dutch, French, and Portuguese, and it is now being realized in German for the first time on the ALBERTINA Museum’s Bastion Terrace. This installation has been shown at venues including the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (2017), the Perez Art Museum, Miami (2017), the Chicago Park District (2018, 2019, 2020) the National Gallery Singapore (2021), the Fort Mason Center for the Arts and Culture, San Francisco (2021), and in many other places worldwide.

This floor installation is on view starting on 29 June 2022.