Inherent in the Rhumb Line

Lawrence Weiner

2005, 7:25 min, color, silent

Inherent in the Rhumb Line is a silent motion drawing. "With the advent of the rhumb line — a line of constant bearing or loxodrome — a cognitive pattern developed in the Western world that allowed the possibility to conceive pillage on voyages of discovery. Inherent in the Rhumb Line is an imperative for use — regardless of consequence — a flattened convolution that marries landscape with loot and preordination."

Need To Know

Lawrence Weiner

1978, 59 min, Audio CD

A radio play that aired on WBAI in New York in 1978, Need to Know is a sound structure. With allusions to Sam Cooke and the socio-political upheaval of the era, this multi-voiced "Experimental Theatre of the Air" is alternately playful and, as promised by its title, urgently imperative.

Passage To The North

Lawrence Weiner

1981, 16 min, color, sound

"Passage to the North revolves around a reverse Ibsen dialogue (Ibsen's people would have longed for the south) about the necessity of the various characters-including two hard-faced young women in black leather coats and a soft man-going to the north. Domestic scenes of inquisition and conflict are intercut with black and white photographs and movies of a fire being put out on the blackened remains of a ship..." — Ann-Sargeant Wooster