from "Mess in the Tête as Brick"
by Stephanie Taylor
Appearance and meaning share a chasm: speak the same language but say something different. For instance, gallery-goers I’ll try to make it (no one specifies how hard they will try, which, in this case, determines the substantive significance of the statement) or, beautiful exhibition! (an exhibition may be beautiful but bad). Academics sometimes speak in a language with a style equal to its meaning in presence: this doesn’t (always) mean the thicker the language, the seemingly thicker the thought. How to put words together and which ones to choose, and more, the extractability of meaning to morpheme. I walk into a room and try to figure out what’s going on, make up a story to fight the fear of not understanding, and then later marvel at my wildly inaccurate estimations made under the constraints of fear, of unknowing. This is a key to my work. I first wondered if the urge to recreate this experience was passive aggressive, but I’ve come to believe its more empathetic realism.
First impressions: there are so many personal, chemical and biological factors in first impressions; the figure in a landscape alone is enough to work with. A story can be culled rather than created from a combination of nerve endings and available choices. There is no need to make things up, but at the same time, there is no option not to. Connect any dots and you have a story and you will connect the dots. I make work with rhyme charts, which function as an intermediary device, a navigation tool amidst too many choices.
This is how it works: a found text (any text for basically any reason) is broken down into individual syllables. A list is made for each syllable of rhyming words. A new text is written from the lists. The story is conjured rather than created; underlying truths are uncovered as syllabic connections are made.
The products of rhyme charts: are meant to look like thematic installation art, the kind created when an artist is really into a certain subject matter, for instance, cars, and he decides to make a show all about cars. The equivalences here are dual, in that my work is based on subject matter and (because of the rhyme chart process) sound-association.
[continues in TrenchArt: Parapet]
Chop Shop by Stephanie Taylor was published in 2007.