Michael Asher: MoCA Chicago 1979 -- For this installation, Asher proposed that the two horizontal rows of aluminum panels on either side of and on the same level as the Bergman Gallery windows should be removed from the facade and placed on an interior wall of the gallery for the duration of the exhibition. Arguing that this project "points to the conditions in which architecture and art, as practices, have become irreconcilable," Asher believes that the only similarity between these two practices is ultimately stylistic. http://www.clancco.com
"The real importance of Michael Asher's art lies in the way it has inspired a dynamic oral culture. His work lives on in anecdotes recounted from one artist to the next. The visual documentation of his ephemeral art is rarely very stimulating, and because his works have no title (they are not "Untitled" but have no name whatsoever), the can't be invoked quickly and easily. They demand verbal discription. Not surprisingly, Asher's overriding artistic goal has always been, in his words, "to animate debate". -- Sarah Thornton