context
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 13
Exercices de Style. Surprises / Exercises in Style. Surprises
Paper –and 444 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 52,6 cm (24,4” x 19,7”)
2015
Page 14
Exercices de Style. Rêve / Exercises in Style. Dream
Paper –and 577 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 52,6 cm (24,4” x 19,7”)
2015
Page 15
Exercices de Style. Pronostications / Exercises in Style. Prognostication
Paper –and 576 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 52,6 cm (24,4” x 19,7”)
2015
Page 16
Exercices de Style. Synchyses / Exercises in Style. Synchysis
Paper –and 399 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 52,6 cm (24,4” x 19,7”)
2015
Page 17
Exercices de Style. L’arc-en-ciel / Exercises in Style. The Rainbow
Paper –and 409 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 52,6 cm (24,4” x 19,7”)
2015
Pages 18 and 19
Exercices de Style. Logo-rallye / Exercises in Style. Word Game
Paper –and 680 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 86,6 cm (24,4” x 33,2”)
2015
Pages 20 and 21
Exercices de Style. Hésitations / Exercises in Style. Hesitation
Paper –and 821 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 86,6 cm (24,4” x 33,2”)
2015
Pages 22 and 23
Exercices de Style. Précisions / Exercises in Style. Precision
Paper –and 769 letters–, hand-cut. 64,8 x 86,6 cm (24,4” x 33,2”)
2015
exhibited in
related videos
the making of Exercices de Style / Exercises in Style
the making of Exercices de Style / Exercises in Style.
Solo show at the Frost Art Museum, Miami.
duration 1:49