AT A DISTANCE TO THE FOREGROUND
Lawrence Weiner

Painted directly onto the northern façade of a dilapidated former silk mill and only viewable from specific vantage points within the town, the bright gloss orange and block capitals chosen by Weiner gave AT A DISTANCE TO THE FOREGROUND a strident, declamatory presence for its incarnation in Frome when it formed the artist’s contribution to Intervention/Decoration in 2008.

An exchange takes place between site and text– where the work gains a new meaning from its context and where the site finds its voice through Weiner’s statement. Although in one sense explicitly formal – the work on the northern elevation of silk mill could only be viewed in totality from vantage points where the mill was indeed at a distance to the foreground of the view it ws framed within – in Frome in 2008, that voice also spoke of the hierarchies of power at work in the development of public space within the town, and of how buildings and people can find themselves overtaken by the forces of regeneration and development.