Project X

Marjorie Welish and Gracia Khouw
Accordion-fold prints housed in archival boxes

MW
22.86 x 43.18 cm / 9 x 17"/ Giclée print / IFA 15 Soft White Cotton / 280 gsm Production Skink.Ink, New York (US)

GK
23 x 30.50 cm / 9 x 12" / Giclée print / IFA 24 Décor Smooth Art / 210 gsm Production Ruijgrok Piëzografie, Amsterdam (NL)

Talas box 23.50 x 43.85 x 2.54 cm / 9 1⁄4 x 17 1⁄4 x 1"

Photos: accordion-fold prints (leporellos) and installation views of de/cipher exhibition in gkg Bonn (DE) 22/1/ - 16/4-2023.

MW: “If diagrams are images to be read, inscriptions are concerned words to be seen. This statement has informed much of my art practice, although in unorthodox non-programmatic ways. Graphic uses of line appear in my paintings to articulate a discursive structure or meta-language about art that changes depending on the series. The lexical resources of words appear, provoked through collaborative projects, occur serendipitously: when in conversation with another artist, for possibilities not yet explored.

So it was with Gracia Khouw. Months after a studio visit, I challenged her to start a collaborative exchange from words remembered from our studio visit. My task then would be to work within her lexical choices. Suggesting that we both create screens led to a productive miscommunication, I assuming folding screens would be our format, she assuming screens meant single sheets. We have arrived at a collaborative project that is that much more invigorating for utilizing both.”

GK: “Each letter image consists of horizontals and verticals, and sometimes diagonals and curves. Together these form a dynamic interplay of lines. For me, the main concern is the form in which language appears, and in addition, the sound that becomes audible through a word, the difference in size of the letters and the use of color. I like to see the meaning of a word disconnected from its visual appearance. The choice of a word or phrase is often tied to the context of a project. Phrases and words are a place of departure for an architectural construction.

When Marjorie invited me to work on a collaborative project, I suggested using words from her book “A Work, and …/ “as a reference point. Since these words come from an intellectual discourse, I thought it would make sense to include words from everyday life as a contrast, so that various forms of language would resonate with each other. Throughout my work, perception is disconnected from reading and you perceive abstract signs first, and only later word, meaning and possible interpretations.”