Title: Text Weave

Typewriter imprint (ink ribbon) on Arches paper.

9 x 1 2 inches.

From the series: Grammar of Order

I use the mechanical structure of the typewriter as a kind of loom, repeating characters until they begin to behave like threads and text begins to resemble textile. What interests me about weaving is the mechanism that holds everything together: warp and weft depend on the discipline of one another, but also on the right amount of tension. Pull too tightly and the fabric shrinks and distorts; leave it too loose and it comes apart.

I find myself returning to that image when thinking about the structures we depend on to live together: language, law, authority, ethics, and belief. We need order to make freedom possible, but that same order can become oppressive when it leaves no room for movement, contradiction, flexibility, or change.

Artwork ships unframed.