5 Vol. 15, No. 3 (2014)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
Word as Image
Visual Art and the Written Word
Lilian Cooper
Abstract
Presentation of a three pieces non-interventionist word and image art work in a natural environment. Résumé
Présentation de trois pièces reflétant le travail d’une intervention épéhèmère combinant mots et images dans un espace naturel
Keywords
non-interventionalism, landscape, site-specific art
In my practice as a visual artist I have been increasingly fascinated by the relationship between text and art. Fleeting words like a passing remark become a full text when the entirety is read. I like the sometimes disjointed nature of the text, it puts a differing emphasis on the whole piece as each line or phrase is read out of context.
I work in a non-interventionalist fashion; my work will disappear within hours or days recorded only in photograph. I aim to leave the landscape untouched.
The text and the context of this text become the artwork. I write the texts myself. The words chosen are inspired by the environment where they are photographed, my aim is to integrate the two. The text and the visual interpretation of it form a seamlessly combined whole where both elements have equal value and are reliant upon each other to create the final finished work, neither have more import than the other.
The pieces I have selected are intended to illustrate some aspects of my practice. The first pair of images is from the “Sexy Trees” installation created during a residency at Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut in 2004. It was inspired by my direct experience during a month long residency. It was a fascinating landscape, a precious empty space in a landscape dominated by high-end real estate. I wrote the text on the gardening ribbon used to mark trees ready for felling or pruning. The entire text reads: If you see a woodchuck it is lost / this is a domestic wilderness / still very beautiful. / Skimming mosquitos dot pond / loud voices edge it / sexy trees / dip roots / grow/ green until fall. / Ignore real
6 Vol. 15, No. 3 (2014)
IMAGE [&] NARRATIVE
estate/ and mice/ they prefer to come to you / party / eat cheese and honey / all night./ I learnt / I like my wildlife outdoors / and / nothing compares / to a good tree.
The second set of images: “River Rocks” come from a work made in a riverbed in the Spanish Pyrenees in 2012. These were written on site in chalk so that it would be washed away by the stream or rain. I wrote them after watching people play and sunbathe in the stream over a period of a week.
The third piece is inspired by the butterfly house at the Botanical Gardens in Amsterdam, it was created for a virtual workshop I was part of in South Korea in 2013. I have been working on another project in the Botanical Gardens and the butterfly house is a beautiful haven within the gardens that I visit often during winter. The full text is: Escapologists sharing outrageous, exuberant joy/ Stop. Momentarily pensive- / blossom focused, contemplating erupting fruit/ they return to / sunshine dancing. This text was written using dissolvable marker pen and wiped off within minutes.