Asemic art
There is a strong relationship between writing and art, and asemic artists work with that relationship to enhance the sense that writing is visual as well as symbolic. When you read a text as “text” you are looking for meaning, so the writing itself becomes nearly invisible. You see through the writing to what it is saying. Asemic writing will not let you see through the marks. Instead the marks on the page become visual images that have their own beauty and tell a different story. Here writing intersects with art—becomes art—and acquires its own beauty. This is also why we find ancient manuscripts we can no longer read quite beautiful as objects of art and contemplation. The image here shows a “manuscript” that has the markings associated with handwriting, but also written marks done with gold paint. It was Roland Barthes who wondered whether a word made of letters would change its meaning if it was done in color. Would color change the meaning? The title of the work here is “Blue Manuscript” and it is done with mixed media, acrylic, graphite and gold paint on Canson paper, 18” x 22” in size.
This is another work, titled “Red Manuscript.” It is smaller than the blue manuscript page, being 9” x 12”. The materials are mixed media, acrylic paint applied via gel plate, and gold paint. Painting with gel plate is actually a method of printing, where the paint is applied to the plate instead of the paper, and the paper is pressed onto the plate. Gel plating is therefore a form of monoprinting, where each print is different, but it nonetheless references book printing. The gold paint takes the place of asemic characters. Printing techniques as this involve not just the image that emerges, but also the paint and the ink and the paper. Overlaying thin paint over thin paint produces a kind of “ghost” manuscript inside the main work, and the possibility of a hidden manuscript behind the forefronted one.
Another set of “manuscript page” paintings titled “returnings 1 and 2. They are two separate paintings which, when presented together, give the impression of an opened book showing both pages together, mirroring each other. This is “writing art” made with acrylic paint and alcohol-based marker and includes tissue paper collage. The paint is fluid and acts much like ink and is applied with a soft spreader instead of a brush. The spreader has a sharp edge which allows for the drawing of lines. The color scheme is black and blue, the most common ink colours, and some brown to create the impression of time-darkened paper. The white is iridescent and captures the light, creating a pearlescent effect. This painting is done on Canson paper, 18” x 22” in size. The drawn lines are asemic notations inspired by Chinese calligraphy and the black areas are spaces of “nothingness” or “signal-free” areas. In painterly language, the black gives the eye a chance to rest on an otherwise fluid surface that is reminiscent of water.
The two “returnings” works have been exhibited in the exhibition “Oil and Water” which ran from June 6 to June 23, 2024, at the Gallery 1710 in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. This was their annual juried art exhibit which showed art from across the province of B.C.