beyond_words-drawing, originally uploaded by adelej.

One of the threads of the discussion group Marks and Meaning has been about ‘The Tree of Talking’ and the process of packing a concept into a short word or phrase. Sign language is another visual language which does this.

Last year I worked on a body of artwork for an exhibition I called ‘Beyond Words’ which explored language and the ways we interpret symbols and unspoken language.

The drawing here developed from a series of poems by US poet Cole Swensen in her book ‘The Book of a Hundred Hands’ describing the movement and anatomy of hands and specifically of hands making sign language.

To develop this 2 meter long graphite and acrylic paint drawing I asked a deaf model to sign the phrase ‘words emerge like birds’, filmed her and used that as inspiration to describe in visual language her words and her movement. You can both read the signs literally and sense the action.

In written terms this is eckphrasia – using one mode of communication to describe another – usually it refers to writing that describes or is inspired by an art work. Wordsworth’s ‘Ode to a Greecian Urn’ was a classic example of this.

I wanted to see what would happen if one instance of the idea was translated a number of times through a series of different modes of communication – to distill and to evolve it. I think this could be eckphrastic art!