TYPOGRAPHIONS

drawing / collage

The Typographions series is based on eleven selected sentences from the poetry of Pablo Neruda. They are not quoted or treated as illustrations of the poetry. Instead, they become the material of the image — subjected to repeated transformations, repetitions, shifts and permutations.

The starting point is the word, but in the process of creation it gradually ceases to function solely as a carrier of linguistic meaning. I treat the eleven selected sentences as an open repertoire, allowing myself complete freedom in how they are used. Some drawings are built around a single transformed word, while others make use of all eleven sentences. Repeated phrases, fragments of sentences, individual letters and entire blocks of text begin to function as visual signs. Their rhythm, density, direction, scale and placement within the image become compositional elements equal to the other means of drawing.

Repetition is essential here. The same sentence, returning again and again, may take on a different form each time and appear in a different place within the image. Repetition does not, however, mean sameness. The phrase undergoes successive transformations, while its rhythmic recurrence builds the structure and identity of individual works. The word is subjected to a process of visual transformation in which linguistic meaning begins to intersect with visual meaning.

I am particularly interested in the tension between these two ways in which text can function. On the one hand, I seek to reduce the letter, word or entire block of text to an almost purely painterly sign — to form, rhythm, texture and the materiality of the image. On the other hand, I do not want to strip the text entirely of its meaning. On the contrary, I want the meaning of the selected sentences to permeate the image and influence its character, even when it is not read literally.

In this way, text creates a second, deeper layer of the image. It does not need to be read in order to have an effect. Its meaning can operate beyond direct reading — through rhythm, repetition, accumulation, fragmentation and the way the text becomes integrated into the structure of the drawing.