PERIOD PIECES

"The alphabet always remains obediently embeded in the white page, and if it should happen that the letters come to life… this is the fault of the spectator alone."
-Michel Leiris

All of the paintings in the show are made using black and white enamel, on hand engraved Dibond. These are the materials of the (artisanal) sign maker/producer. They are 1 to 1 scale painted representations of collages made by altering Chartpak‰ã¢ vinyl letterset sheets.

Each dark shape is painted with six coats of flat black enamel so that they float on the surface of the image. These shapes are not organized left to right, but by the "formal logic" of the picture plane. The subtle shifts in the placement (or lack thereof) of the letters and the arrangement of the punctuation suggest multiple referents from Malevich and the Russian avant-garde, to Martin Barré, to the early monochromes of Robert Rauschenberg. Insofar as this phenomenon occurs the Period Pieces represent a kind of writing.

However, they resist categorization either as pure form or inscription largely due to the fact that the surface they rest upon is markedly impure. The off white enamel follows the contours of its aluminum support layer which has been scored to suggest the residual imprint of a vinyl lettering press. The spectral letters of this sub-layer have been arranged so as to maximize efficiency of space upon the 6x10 inch format. It is a readymade composition of pentimenti-like markings which follow the logic of "bang for your buck", a literal economy of forms. We are reminded that the aforementioned historical references also represented moments when lines between Painting's autonomy and the Readymade -or mass-produced object- were at once blurred, and pathologically redrawn.

These images embrace their categorical uncertainty and the languid speed at which they communicate information.

2011
Intall2