If the Color Changes

Mel Bochner is one of the leading artists associated with the development known as Conceptual Art. In classic Conceptual Art, the idea precedes its representation; a written idea or number sequence determines the work's outcome. During the 1960s and 1970s, Conceptual artists turned to "non-visual" forms, including writing, to record their ideas. By contrast, Bochner has always infused his Conceptualism with a strongly visual component. The series If the Color Changes exemplifies this synthetic approach. The project was inspired by a quotation from Ludwig Wittgenstein's Remarks on Color (1950-51). As one of the premier language philosophers, Wittgenstein (Austrian, 1889-1951) has long been a major source for many Conceptualists. Yet the translation of his thought into art is not straightforward, since Wittgenstein's writings question language's ability to convey what we see. A simple image-for example, "blue vase"-becomes the pretext for a dizzying language game. Is the blue a sensation, a word on a page, a thought in one's mind, an intrinsic quality of the vase? Appropriately, If the Color Changes depicts the impossibility of translation--of what we see into words, of one language into another. The overlap of the German and English versions of the text causes a mental disconnect as one attempts to hold both in one's mind. Which is the "true" representation of Wittgenstein's statement? Neither, and both.