'Beyond the Word' nr. 3

This project is a journey that begins with a drawing and ends with print art. As in life, you go through different changes, phases and stages to get to the person you are in the present.

It starts with a charcoal drawing, of a non specific person, on a small piece of wood. The wood represents the external influences on the person. This material is easily damageable, so the damage on the wood is the marks left on the body and soul. This drawing is a (instantaneous) moment of a person.

Afterwords it is photographed, digitised, modified, depicted with words (beyond the word) and is printed on a big piece of wood (the development up to where it arrived so far).

So it starts small and after all these changes and experiences, as a result, it becomes big (such as growth). The face starts as a sketch and develops as a final face of words. Words are the experiences, the moments of the past, the thoughts of the person depicted. As in life, experiences, memories and events make what you are in the present. Words cross each other, some are detached or have different dimensions and brightness.

It is up to the observer to imagine and interpret the thoughts and the story behind them. So the words and the image manipulate the thoughts. Perhaps one might also wonder why these words are put together like this and why in this way. Or the identity of the person and who or what they are looking at.

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It is made on wood because it is an organic material: the wood veins are produced during a period of life. These rings, which also depict external influences, cross between words. The external life, in fact, has influences on thought and moments in the course of life. So it manipulates the thoughts of the person portrayed in the artwork and the artwork manipulates the viewer. The lines of the rings are horizontal: it has a symbolic meaning of the course of life, the feminine and the material aspect. The damage shown on the first wood are moments of the past, signs left on the body or soul. Going forward they do not disappear: they cannot disappear from the body or soul and they cannot be erased. So these traces are visible all the way to the final work.

When you stand very close to the artwork you can only see the words, without understanding what it is exactly. Instead if you move away you see the whole picture and a face appears. Similarly it can happen in life: when you are too close to a situation you can no longer see reality, but if you distance yourself or detach yourself from that situation everything becomes clearer.

On the other hand, from a distance the image looks like it was printed with a defective printer, as if several layers were on top of each other. This causes a sense of confusion, as life could be too.

It is a square because it is an isolated moment and implies an idea of stagnation and stabilization. Being an image of a person it is as it is. It doesn’t go beyond. It is stuck in the middle of these four sides. The dimensions are 120 x 120 cm because the symbolic meaning of the number 120, similar to the number 3 (1 + 2 = 3), represents time: past, present and future; imagination, creativity and power; realization of the concrete, synthesis and new directions. The black color of the words represents the absolute limit beyond which there is nothing; it is the color of darkness, chaos and mystery.

There are 6 phases (drawn, photographed, digitized, modified, made with words digitally and printed) and the image of the final works of words have 6 levels. So each level is a phase.

Starting from 1 drawing, using 3 different ways in the phases and ending with 3 different results. As in real life, the surroundings in which you find yourself are fundamental. And there are some things that can be decided or that can happen without being controlled. So the surroundings and decisions are both important for a person’s development. If you undergo different stimuli and surroundings you can evolve in very different ways with very different results.