Using text in your art

[MadGrrl]

Hello - I am currently developing a piece that could involve text of some sort in it. Have many/any of you used text in your work? If so, what was your process of determining what kind of text to use? How was it used? One of my main concerns is that I don't want the text to be the focus of the piece, but definitely to add to the sentiment of it. (the piece is a personal one about identity). Also, any suggestions of artists I could reference who you feel were successful in doing this, I would greatly appreciate. Please, no Jenny Holzer or Barbara Kruger - type stuff...as much as I do like their work, the text is the focus. Thanks!

[jOe~]

I don't want the text to be the focus of the piece, but definitely to add to the sentiment of it A title could do that.

[MadGrrl]

A title could do that.

While this is true...I would like the text to be a visual component of the piece as well.

[Merlion]

There are many examples of art with text as a part, sometimes an important part, of the artwork. Many are photo prints, others are paintings. There are less among sculptures but notable examples can be found, see below.

http://www.newenglandtravelplanner.com/photo_gallery/ny_wkd/images/love_girlz2640.jpg

There was recently a thread here along this line for sculptures. You can click into this link below.

Language as Sculpture, Words as Clay (http://www.sculpture.net/community/showthread.php?t=6354&highlight=text+sculpture)

[WeiMingKai]

My 2 cents absolutely free! (and you get what you pay for):

Combining large print words with imagery to me is so familiar as advertising that it is difficult not to mentally process that sort of thing as 'oh look, a communication....what are they selling?' It is possible to take that visual language/cultural metaphor/cliche and subvert/re-purpose it to 'Art' but it seems like an uphill battle since the audience will have had a lifetime of conditioned responses to advertising. When you say "no Jenny Holzer or Barbara Kruger" stuff then do you rule out giant floating text blocks (http://www.buckinghamstudio.com/_sculpture-movielines.html) whose communicative value is the dominant essence (http://www.regenprojects.com/artists/lawrence-weiner/) of the work?

If the goal is to prevent the text from taking over the work then there might be a couple of things to try.

You might de-emphasize the text by making it subordinate to your sculptural form (http://nhogan85.deviantart.com/art/FGR-Shell-2-69591853). The text is there but it has no independent structural integrity (http://www.whokilledbambi.co.uk/?p=446), it clings to the object (http://www.aeroplastics.net/McGill/index.php),

aka - the text is a surface decoration (http://www.whokilledbambi.co.uk/?p=405) only - either hand painted onto the surface of a figure/abstract form OR you can print it as a decal on paper (then paste it onto the surface like paper mache) OR as a clear decal OR do a thermal transfer (iron on T-shirt transfer paper is fun!) onto fabric and then drape/paste/stretch/dress/whatever to apply the fabric to the form.

It the text characters are to BE the form then you can either make them gibberish/smash them together so they impinge or overlap each other in ways that no self respecting typesetter (http://www.ktfgallery.com/artists/brian_dettmer/) would do if they were trying to make something readable. You can experiment in photoshop with several different layers containing different text characters/words - slide the layers around, overlap, play with transparency/scale/color/whatever. Once get a pattern you like print it out and use it as an 'edge view' template of your sculpture (very much the same as you'd do to create a 3D sign).

Cheap trick idea: to 'wash' the immediate meaning of the words out so as to force the viewer to experience the text as an decorative pattern of lines & curves rather than units of language - take all the words you would use to enhance your identity sculpture concept and run them through the Babelfish (http://babelfish.altavista.com/) and translate them to a language you doubt your audience knows. This way the power of the words as WORDS is masked so they can't overpower/render secondary the impact of the sculptural form.

For example, an identity concept statement of "I am a unique and special snowflake" would translate into Italian as "Sono un fiocco di neve unico e speciale" or Korean as " 나는 유일하고 특별한 눈송이 이다 " - translating into a character set that defies your comprehension is an easy way to reduce your meaning to mere decoration. Of course some people might find that more distracting than being able to understand what you wrote.

Good luck.

[dondougan]

Ian Hamilton Finlay