NOMADIC TEXT
Curated by Jessica Cochran and Mia Ruyter

Sept 18th - October 30, 2011
What It Is Gallery, Oak Park

Lovely Caution, Stephanie Brooks

View Installation Images

According to critic Joanna Drucker, “The relationship between linguistic statement and physical object influences every encounter we have with our environment.” The exhibition Nomadic Texts addresses the adaptability of text across book, sculpture and site. Located within, on or as artworks in this exhibition, words, fragments and sentences seem placeless and mutable as they inhabit expanded fields. Floating or migrating, texts are tacitly connected to their surface or context, unbound by image or narrative: easily unhinged and on the make.

In some works, dynamic composition or experimental typeface captures the spirit of movement and in others, mixed signifiers and poetic gestures suggest unlimited readings and shifts in meaning. Finally, some works capture the nomadism of text in a global sense, as words on signage, garments and the body are ephemeral in time and space.

The exhibition is designed as a site-specific intervention across the domestic space of What It Is. Sculptures, books and installation will be placed throughout the front gallery, living room and dining room.

Artists include Joseph Grigely, Mark Holmes, Alex Valentine, Karen Reimer, Jason Pickleman, Stephanie Brooks, Steven Miglio, Rachel Foster and Rebecca Foster.

(Quote from “Language in the Landscape” p. 90, in Figuring the Word)

Press
Morand, J.T., "Nomadic Text Tracks a Migration of Words," Oak Leaves, September 29, 2011