Originally published as a leaflet on the occasion of "LanguageWorks", a solo exhibition by Eduardo Kac at Aldo Castillo Gallery,Chicago, from July 17 to August 29, 1998. Republished in Xenia,N. 2, April 1999, http://www.xeniareview.com (ISSN 1521-2556).

THE LANGUAGE LABYRINTH

Julia Friedman



Language Works is an exhibition by Chicago artist Eduardo Kac thatinvestigates alternative ways of perceiving and experiencing language.Kac's language art and visual poetry, it's origin in experimental poetry,conceptual art and literature, explore the nature of language through avariety of media. This exhibition, comprised of iris prints, holography,video, and digital works pushes the viewer beyond the fixed typographyof words into the active paradigm in which language exists.

Through mass media and ordinary discourse we are constantly bombarded byrigid sentence structures, words confined to traditional linear syntax,and a culture that completes our thoughts for us. Words, enslaved by thestatic realm of the conventional use of language, are condemned to beingfinite. However, Kac suggests that language can be boundless, liberatedand no longer dominated by the author. The artwork in Language Workschallenges the unilateral system of language in which words are used todictate, define, and reduce by demonstrating the multi-directionality oflanguage and it's all encompassing nature.

Kac's interest in language as an open system of communication traces backto his earlier experimentation with performance, body art, and oral poetryon Ipanema beach and other public spaces. Brazilian born Kac is part ofthe '80s generation of artists whose call for freedom was a reaction againstthe military dictatorship, censorship, and repression in Brazil duringthe '70s. In the '80s Kac's fascination with the impact of language movedfrom verbal poetry to the transcription of verbal signs to billboards,graffiti, electronic signboards, sticker-art, mail art, videotex (a precursorto the Internet) and holography. In contrast to the work of other languageartists, such as Jenny Holtzer and Barbara Kruger, for example, Kac's interestis not to disseminate ideas in a direct way, but to share the process ofideas within a living communication system.

Works such as Amalgam and the prints in the Erratum seriesaddress the nature of language and perception while demonstrating the issueof the instability of language on a two dimensional surface. Amalgam,a holopoem as Kac describes it, is a hologram containing a pair of twowords "Flower-Void" and "Vortex-Flow" which merge asthe viewer follows one or the other word-pairs while striving for clarityand cognition. The distinct words escape from the viewer as they flow backand forth, shifting in a non-linear way. Amalgam's slippery syntaxcombined with it's temporal existence challenges the viewer to search formeaning between the words.

Kac's iris prints, hand painted on the computer, are the most intuitiveworks in this show. From afar the artwork appears to be a mosaic of vibrantcolors. However, under closer inspection the viewer discovers two wordsenmeshed in a symphony of digital patchwork. Each print contains near homophones,such as "knife" and "night", which suggest the pushand pull of language. These words, embedded into the texture of the wholeimage, allude to the integral role words play--even when camouflaged--inthe fabric of existence.

The six digital pieces in Language Works invite the viewer to engagewith the work directly on the computer. This work challenges the notionof art as object making. Through these digital works, Kac causes the viewerto negotiate the medium through which he or she is experiencing the workand with that the condition of art as intercommunication. Kac acknowledgesthat: "Without the active participation of the so called viewer, manyof my works don't exist." These six digital works include runtimeanimations, a hypertext, and a VRML piece. Kac states: "The videosand animations explore verbal rhythms that can only be created once languageis removed from stable surfaces and is immersed in a malleable electronicspace." Secret, from 1996, is a navigational text in whichthe viewer "flies" into a three-dimensional black abyss. As theparticipant approaches the ostensibly still silhouette of a skyline anda moon, three dimensional letters are revealed. By moving the mouse tooclose, the letters move out of control, flying across the screen, eventuallyswooning to a minute speck somewhere in the semantic void.

The title Language Works, with its inherent multiplicity of meaning,exemplifies the ambiguity and play of language that Kac addresses. WhenLanguage is followed by the noun Works, we grasp that something has beenaccomplished or produced by the expenditure of Kac's creative effort. Asa verb, the word Works affirms the word Language, suggesting that the problemof language has been solved or achieved, by reasoning. The possibilitythat the language labyrinth has been fully explored and mastered is preciselythe issue Kac questions. Language Works?

Back to Language Works

Back to Kac Web