This piece comprises of Bristol paper prints in red and black oil-based ink. "Typography of an Unknown Language, 2013" is a series of typographic exercises using linoleum cut printing, the work served the purpose of forcing me into a rigid experimentation with the form of each selected character. Most characters are from a syllabic system of sounds developed and designed by myself, based on existing and often ancient collections of systems of representation. I picked some characters from a system of ideograms that illustrate iconic symbols constituting ideas rather than sounds.
The initial desire to engage in such an exercise was to develop my already existing systems of representation into a more cohesive visual language by unifying their formal patterns and characteristics. This endeavor proved fruitful. The symbols and their combinations were meaningful to me prior to the exercise, and my de-contextualization of them allowed me to wear the skin of the audience and thus concentrate purely on each symbol’s formal unity as a “universally” recognized model for systems of language.
Red, black and white were chosen with the intent of reproducing the highest contrast possible for a more flexible and modular study. The circles, resembling laboratory petri dishes, were inspired by Wolfgang Weingart’s typographical studies of density and shape. I attempted to establish his system of symbolic forms as typographic elements, while introducing my symbols into the pre-existing protocol of forms as letters/ pictographic systems of recording and communication.
"Typography of an Unknown Language, 2013" is now in a few private collections and was exhibited at the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery in 2020.
