said/unsaid

‘said/unsaid’

Errant Art/Space, Victoria BC from July 9-25/2021

Artist Statement

My work for said/unsaid began with a curiousity about the instability of language, how context can affect meaning, how easily the same words and phrases can change, mutate and be transformed.

My starting point was common ‘commands’ we remember from childhood—the socializing directives that may have been ‘well meant’ and even necessary to contain our energy safely or direct our moral development, but that we mostly experienced as attempts to frustrate our natural desires. However, as we make our own way in the world and encounter these same words as adults, they can resonate very differently.

how to live now presents multiples of these phrases in an installation  that invites the viewer to re-visit these once inhibiting orders—to ‘do as we are told’—as new opportunities to pause, rest and reflect. What was once an external demand can now be our own choice— an occasion for growth rather than limitation. Our recent COVID experiences may have forced many of us to experience both the limitations and potential value of restricted freedoms. Accompanying the installation is a series  of  ‘modern meditations’ where I experiment  with the idea of concentrating on any one of these  phrases  using a computer keyboard to type the same words  over and over for a specific length of time. As in any meditation despite our commitment the mind inevitably wanders— making for some interesting visible ‘mistakes’.

The second  part of this body of work  work was based on reconfiguring the individual alphabet letters of the banners. I cut letters vertically and horizontally and rearranged them in a long banner format from a purely aesthetic point of view. Using photoshop I then selected images which became  a series of acrylic paintings on wood and

‘how to live now’ was installed in the front room of the Errant ArtSpace in Victoria British Columbia from July 9-25, 2021.

The space utilized for this installation is a room approximately 7’x7′ with a corridor leading to the main gallery. The ceiling height is 8 1/2 feet. There are 3 doors leading to private studios which required some work-arounds to create as an immersive experience as possible as can be seen in some of the images below .

In total I used 100 banners, each 102″ long using 12 different phrases in opacities ranging from 100% to 5%.  (unfortunately i cannot seem to correct the placement of this text

In ‘modern meditations’ (below)  I play with the idea of concentrating on any one of these phrases using a computer keyboard to type the same words over and over for a specific length of time. As in any meditation despite our commitment the mind inevitably wanders—  made visible in a random variety of   ‘mistakes’

‘modern meditation’ 30″x22″ mylar 

Part II of my work was based on reconfiguring the individual alphabet letters of the banners. I cut letters vertically and horizontally and rearranged them in a long banner format from a purely aesthetic point of view. Using photoshop I then selected images which became  a series of acrylic paintings on wood. What I found was that our latin alphabet forms– even cut up and rearranged without any consideration for language –are hard to erase from our meaning seeking minds.

‘twenty-six plus one’ 8″x 8″x27, acrylic on board

Using the same source, I ‘discovered’ a further group of images which I reproduced in an 8″x 8″ format in acrylic on wood. Because of the unavoidable reference to the latin alphabet, I grouped them together with the title ”twenty-six plus one’. These are modular pieces that can be re-arranged in any combination.

Finally, I selected again from the cut-up letters , this time looking for horizontal lines that would make up a ‘text’. Although unreadable, it still carries the sense of language and by its formatting, a further familiarity