BLACK & WHITE & READ ALL OVER
This collection of work has evolved from an intuitive and playful approach to creativity.
My interest in language, is about meaning, non-meaning and infinite meaning.
Words are the carriers of symbol. These symbols are referred to as letters. Letters carry sound and shape. When letters are arranged in a specific way (writing), they speak to us or, rather we are able to sound them. We read them. This can also be a silent activity like appreciating a painting.
If you google the term ‘written in black and white’ it suggests that it is something, put down in words in a clear and permanent manner. I am trying to challenge this idiom.
My word-paintings are constructed on canvases using black acrylic paint, white-out pens, and stencils. The words/phrases I have chosen to represent through this process are simple, uncomplicated, and commonly used. However, if you ‘read’ them closely you may discover that they reveal hidden messages.
At the same time, using repetition and the asemic, these visual poems, like Zen koans, hint at something beyond the act of writing. They are both, abstract and conceptual, from the world and elsewhere, recognisable and baffling; prompting a close friend to refer to them as ‘Dark Pop Art’.
