Art & Language were at the forefront of conceptual art in the 1960s – their work asked the viewer to consider the mechanisms of representation rather than what was being represented. A turn against the fetishisation of the art object and a questioning of how and for what purposes art is produced and engaged with. An awareness of display, site, authorial intent and the tension between text and image. https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/30.2003.a-b/#about

Trying to more directly involve text and language in my work.

Text used here to describe everything that isn’t shown: the negative space surrounding the outlines of Iowa and Kentucky. The presence of the drawn states make us aware of the absence of the majority – the text draws further attention to that absence.

A white-painted canvas accompanied by the following text:  'The content of this painting is invisible: the character and dimension of the content are to be kept permanently secret, known only to the artist.'

Secret Painting references the history of the monochrome - Malevich's Black Square (1915) proclaimed the end of representational art and provided a space for meditation.  The space created here is more a space for consideration, imagination and inevitable frustration.  An application of language is used here to conjure complete invisibility from the blank space of the canvas, concealing the artwork we are told definitely exists.

'There are three components to the work: a painting that we are told exists, a text assuring us it exists and an overpainting that takes the form of a monochrome which might be considered either as a pure negation of what lies beneath or perhaps as an imitation for the viewer to let the imagination play.'

The text has primacy over what can be seen, thus directly affecting how the viewer might look at it.

http://www.modernedition.com/art-articles/absence-in-art/the-white-art-space.html

https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/30.2003.a-b/#about

Make work where text and image compete for space – positive and negative subject compete – text can be the subject

The idea of the unknown/invisible artwork, existing but concealed, is something I could play with and/or apply to sketchbook.