BSPH: Mel Bochner - Blah Blah Blah

"Blah Blah Blah" is a title of the series of paintings by American conceptual artist Mel Bochner. It is text-based paintings that repeat particular ubiquitious phrase in rainbow-toned palette. And nothing else. Because "a little bit more might be a little bit too much". On a surface it is traditional conceptual swerve - inciting incident for mind domino effect that turns into wandering in the maze. But in this case it is only a diversion - the mind game goes nowhere. It is not the point of the piece. The real thing is the VOID the painting represents.

But let's take a step back. What is the meaning of "Blah blah blah" the phrase? Commonly it is a signifier of certain portion of information that can be considered as somewhat silly, pretentious, utterly boring and decidedly lacking anything of particular interest. It is used as a cut-off placeholder and substitute for words that mean little or nothing at all in a moment.

"Blah Blah Blah" the painthing is annoying in its simplicity. It is also rather brutal if you know the story. From a standpoint of conceptual art history it can be considered almost a leering wink that suspiciously lacks tongue in cheek. For Mel Bochner it is more than just a rib. It is his kind condemnation of oversaturation and overexposure of words and images to the point of complete desensitization of the recipient. There are way too many thing to perceive and because of that mind turns on its inner Juey who in his turn shuts off any distractions that may cause the thing known as "thinking" or to be exact "contemplation" or "pondering". "Becos to menny".

But it is not only media criticism. "Blah Blah Blah" is also scathing story of self-doubt of an artist. Bochner questions himself and his skills for adequacy. He shows that he can lay the thing out, choose the words, composition, colors - but that doesn't mean that the result can sum up to anything. Technically "Blah Blah Blah" is a hijacking of the word in a manner of Ed Rusha. The word is displaced and thus transformed into something else that it is similar to the original but functions differently. It is very simple and yet extremely effective way of changing perspective and going beyond for no reason at all.

"Blah Blah Blah" is a potboiler placeholder for something else that will never come. And it is something any artist is mortified with.