This new project is part of a series of recent works where the text is incorporated as a central problem in the image. Similar in constructive system as Still life / Style leaf in the use of images of wrinkled pages, in this case I chose the book Exercices de Style (Exercises in Style) by the French writer Raymond Queneau. In the book, Quenau tells a brief story of an everyday life situation that happens in a bus, and then, he re-writes it ninety-nine times, in ninety-nine different ways, each in a radically different style, as a sonnet, an opera, in slang, and with many more permutations.

I have conceived three different series, made with different media, which are wool felt, paper –both hand-cut– and embroidery. Each one of the pieces reproduces a different version of Exercices de Style: five stories in felt, eight stories in paper and six stories in hand-made embroidery.

Just as Queneau uses lenguaje in many different ways in his stories, in my “exercises” I present different approaches to the images of wrinkled pages of the book; each material and technical variation offers a new sense and a new way to understand that “the form is content”.

Captions of the pieces

Page 7
Exercices de Style. Notations / Exercises in Style. Notation
Natural wool felt –and 493 felt letters–, hand-cut. 184 x 125 cm (72” x 47”)
2014

Pages 8 and 9
Exercices de Style. En partie double / Exercises in Style. Double Entry
Two pieces of natural wool felt –and 854 felt letters–, hand-cut 184 x 125 cm (72” x 47”) each
2014

Page 10
Exercices de Style. Litotes / Exercises in Style. Litotes
Natural wool felt–and 259 felt letters–, hand-cut. 184 x 125 cm (72” x 47”)
2014

Page 11
Exercices de Style. Métaphoriquement / Exercises in Style. Metaphorically
Natural wool felt –and 306 felt letters–, hand-cut. 184 x 125 cm (72” x 47”)
2014

Page 12
Exercices de Style. Rétrograde / Exercises in Style. Retrograde
Natural wool felt –and 358 felt letters–, hand-cut. 184 x 125 cm (72” x 47”)
2014