Sunday, August 12, 2012

Exploration 4: Text.

I'm really inspired by text based art. It offers a whole new dimension of lyricism and decoding with font being as important as syntax. And again the materials communicate. This idea comes from the discovery that written expression like prose and poetry can be a useful (if not superior) substitute for medication when it comes to pain and discomfort (caveat: excepting childbirth. Any one reading me a poem during child birth risks their life). I like the idea of of that classic cry of emergency "Is there a Doctor in the house????" becoming "Is there a poet in the house???" - reflecting the healing power of language in the darkest of circumstances.
For this exploration I cut out some felt letters, still going with my textile theme, but I quickly realised that wouldn't work. There is nothing about felt that screams. Instead you want a distressed urgent font in screaming capitals. Maybe this?



1 comment:

  1. I'm not sure if I mentioned this to you last year, but you may be into Tom Phillips' Humument http://gallery.humument.com/page001-birthday

    The blurb: In 1966 artist Tom Phillips set himself a task: to find a second-hand book for threepence and alter every page by painting, collage and cut-up techniques to create an entirely new version. He found his threepenny novel in a junkshop on Peckham Rye, South London. This was an 1892 Victorian obscurity titled A Human Document by W.H Mallock and he titled his altered book A Humument. The first version of all 367 treated pages was published in 1973 since when there have been four revised editions. A Humument is now one of the best known and loved of all 20th Century artist's books and is regarded as a seminal classic of postmodern art.

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