read/un-read investigates a found language not of words, but of the shapes and gestures made with hands and arms as recorded in still news photography. Each gesture is a calligraphic character. Reading the characters requires something other than intellectual deciphering, as these forms are known in our bodies more than in our minds.
This installation brings together more than a year of front pages from Sunday newspapers. Removing the text and scrubbing the photos of most of the visual information leaves a language of body gestures floating over traces of the original photos. The accumulation offers an opportunity to read the gestures/characters as continuous language, exploring what can be perceived beyond the written news stories, which are filtered through cultural lenses. The pacing of images throughout the installation plays with the relentless delivery of more and more news. |
