BAMPFA’s newest commission for the Art Wall features a work by Lawrence Weiner. Like many other artists who began working in the late 1960s and 1970s, Weiner is deeply interested in methods of display that challenge the assumption that the work of art exists as a discrete object in the physical world.

For his BAMPFA commission,  Weiner considers the specific location and architecture of the site to determine the compositional arrangement of the block lettering, which hovers at the center of the expansive white wall above the Crane Forum’s wooden steps. The text reads: “LAID OUT ON THE BANKS OF A RIVER LEANING TOWARDS THE OCEAN LAID OUT ON THE BANKS OF A RIVER LEANING TOWARDS THE LAND.” The words are set in red banners with ragged edges that tilt slightly, echoing the angle of the steps while also conjuring forms of the natural landscape.