Teaching a Plant the Alphabet

John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, 1972, single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company, 2007.33.7, © 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY

Artwork Details

Title: Teaching a Plant the Alphabet
Artist: John Baldessari
Date: 1972
Location: Not on view
Copyright: © 1972 John Baldessari. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix, NY
Credit Line: Museum purchase made possible by the Ford Motor Company
Mediums: video
Mediums Description: single-channel video, black and white, sound; 18:40 minutes
Classifications: Media Arts
Subjects: Object — letter
Object — foliage
Object Number: 2007.33.7
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2007.33.7

Artwork Description

One of John Baldessari’s primary interests as a conceptual artist is to explore how images acquire meaning, and therefore to probe the boundaries of how we define art. In Teaching a Plant the Alphabet, the artist patiently gives an elementary lesson in the English alphabet to a potted banana plant. The absurdist exercise, with its futile, monotonous repetition and deadpan delivery, confronts our expectations of what art is supposed to look like. This video is also Baldessari’s response to the popularity of the academic disciplines of linguistics and semiotics that influenced many conceptual artists during the 1970s.

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