John Baldessari, Teaching a Plant the Alphabet (1972)

For this assignment I chose a piece by the late John Baldessari: Teaching a Plant the Alphabet. This video work is an absurd comedic piece that creates a dialogue about education and rote memorization. The video is over eighteen minutes long and consists of Baldessari repeating the letters of the alphabet over and over again. He holds up children's alphabet cards to a potted plant that is seated on a stool. He repeats each letter of the alphabet numerous times as if he expects the plant to learn the letters. I actually like this piece of video art because it's just incredibly absurd and time wasting. It reminds me a lot of the English comedy troop, Monty Python. They specialized in creating absurd comedy that lasted for very long amounts of time for no other reason than for absurdity itself. Monty Python's first feature film that employs a lot of this comedy came out three years after this work by Baldessari and it seems like the work of Baldessari could have been an inspiration for their comedy.

Link to Teaching a Plant the Alphabet (1972)

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