exhibition
Barry Ledoux, Fall into Language

About the exhibition

Fall into Language
Solo exhibition by Barry Ledoux

Related event: March 12, 2005 - Barry Ledoux Artist's Talk


Fall into Language

There are two premises the artist has intended to test with this group of paper constructions loosely fitting the description of drawings: 1. That language obscures as much as it reveals about itself and 2. That language can be chosen as any other pliable sculptural material. Each of the drawings or should we say the paper /text/pigment ensembles is a complete experiment unto itself testing the dynamic relationships between meaning, memory and metaphor.

These series of drawings were influenced by two seemingly unrelated sources: the poetry of Emily Dickinson and the "word paintings" of Renaissance composer John Dowland. "Dickinson's poems", Ledoux explains, " with their stripped bare use of text and lack of punctuation that seems forged into the paper rather than just a text laid across a white page, make the words have mass and space along with the traditional expressions of metaphor, rhythm, and limited narrative intent. I also found that space in Dowland's four songbooks and his textural use of sound combinations of madrigal singers and early string ensembles done in the most intimate of small ensemble structures."

Ledoux's use of color is always minimal, though the saturated raw color pigment is chosen to denote specific enough emotional intent. Craypass, glassbeads, oil stick create texture and weight and above all, a surface that seems latent with implied energy.