Recently, I have been working on a collaborative art book with 8 fellow printmakers based out of New England and Canada. The art book focuses on Asemic writing, which is a style of writing that contains indecipherable text, letters, and words with no specific meaning. Asemic is defined by "having no specific semantic content", or "without the smallest unit of meaning". The intention is that with no rules or regulations for you to hold onto, your brain will create its own meaning behind the letters and words. What an interesting challenge to build art from!
The process of creating these images was less traditional that my typical work. I used a technique called frottage, which is a French term for using a crayon or soft pencil to reveal the texture of a substrate on paper. To make these images, I placed a piece of paper over a substrate I made out of different letters, and lightly pressed down with a crayon until the image was transferred onto the paper. I love how much texture and detail was preserved!
When creating my pieces, I was inspired by the new space explorations we are seeing; the unknown is becoming attainable…. well, to some. I myself am not a wealthy white man, so visiting space might not be in the cards for me. This little spaceship is as close as I’ll get!
Another inspiration I pulled from was the most recent full moon cycle. Across cultures, eras, and communities, the moons have played important roles in how we situate ourself in time, in space, and in mind. In July, I was inspired by Guru Purnima, which is a summer full moon worship celebration that originates in Indian culture. This tradition is observed in celebration dedicated to all the spiritual and academic Gurus, who are evolved or enlightened humans, ready to share their wisdom.
Combining these inspirations with this style has some sort of beautiful irony to me… in this month, while some were worshipping spiritual enlightenment, others were choosing personal space exploration. While both seem very far separated, these are both examples of finding meaning from something that is otherwise nondescript. Take the moon as an example of an Asemic piece of writing (remember, Asemic writing does not have to be “real” letters in any capacity). If you are a practicing Hindu, you may look up to the full moon in July and read wisdom, enlightenment, or spirituality. If you are Jeff Bezos, you may look up to the moon and read “I want to market my budding space travel company.”
So, take these images of illegible text building the shape of a spaceship, which is residing in a vast, empty, meaningless void, and see what you can decipher from it.