 |
Email PageAn Articulate Chicken Recipe
September 5, 2006- September 30, 2006
Steven Travis
Amos Eno Gallery
111 Front StAn essential role of language is to enable us to tell stories, yet what happens when stories tell language? This is the case of ‘An Articulate Chicken Recipe’, an exhibit of illuminated pages, where ingredients and a grand feast become vehicles of linguistic fancy.
Since 1977, Artist Steven Travis has been inventing his own language called Tapissary. Over the past twenty-nine years, eight thousand of his hieroglyphs have come to populate the dictionary. He has devised a grammatical system that encodes life into rotating cycles. With such a mechanism in place, Tapissary latches onto the inherent movement of a story. The cycle of a feast recorded in his personal hieroglyphs on intricate polymer paintings, reveals the cursive nature of the festivities. The fact that the main character is not human, but rather linguistic, and that supporting personalities have the bodies of silverware, suggests a poetic quality reminiscent of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Travis has chosen the saturated colors and responsive touch of polymer clay as his material for this singular adventure. The evident inspiration from European illuminated manuscripts and Persian miniatures are reworked into a modern context and medium. Flanked around each page as if they were place settings, he has sculpted distinctive anthropomorphic cutlery which is poised for the meal. The prevalence of convoluted patterns and the overripe contours of the utensils conform to the texture of this highly inflected language. Each of the gallery’s six walls is dedicated to a different facet of Tapissary. The stage is set for the Articulate Chicken story to ‘tell’ the flavors of the evolving cycle.
For several years, Travis has used his language as a subject in many of his exhibitions. He has shown Tapissary in Paris, New York and Los Angeles.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
| ||||||||||||||
Amos Eno Gallery was last updated: 2008-12-01
Update general information with the Gallery Editor.
Update shows with the Exhibition Manager.
Update inventory with the Inventory Manager.
Update general information with the Gallery Editor.
Update shows with the Exhibition Manager.
Update inventory with the Inventory Manager.
|
© 2005-2008 chelseaartgalleries.com | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy
| Site Map |
