I N K
derived from Greek E N K A U S T O S, verbal of enkaiein to burn in - cf. ENCAUSTIC

All of my background and practice is calligraphy, hence I suggest that these largely abstract works be regarded as a wordless calligraphy; more than as abstract paintings or drawings. What is left, if you take the writing out of calligraphy? Only the ink remains. Can one perhaps still communicate with wordless, almost unwritten calligraphy? These works aim to distill pure ink from calligraphy, to dissolve the word and to liquefy its form. To celebrate calligraphy without nostalgia and with due respect, at a time when it is entirely dislocated from it's historical role of being a primary means of communication by text.

The works embody through ink the symbolism of all writing and all calligraphy, yet present an image, instead of a word or text. (Some words have been captioned at the base of these works; these reinforce the relation to calligraphy, writing and semantics.)

I hope the viewer will understand that these are not black and white works- I rely on on the infinite shades of gray, the ambiguity;  and even the beauty derived from acceptance of loss. And there is colour here also, and all that it symbolises, in the subtle shifts from warm to cooler shades of black.

The abstraction of the works from conventional calligraphy, (abstract: from Latin abstractus, 'drawn away' ) allows possibilities for interpretation as landscapes or even 'bodyscapes' - I see in them the truncated torsos of classical sculpture. But they are represented here as an x-ray of the psyche. If one entertains this idea, then no 'milk-livered' cowardice is represented in these dark guts, though the protective ink ejaculations of squid, cuttle fish and octopuses are certainly relevant links (or 'L...INKS'') in considering the hiding of a word by abstraction. The medieval history of western writing is tied to the use of parchment and vellum skins as a writing surface, and I have considered that in other series', but here we go beneath the skin, straight to the guts, expressed with the blood of writing.

Detail from Enkaustos, Denis Brown, 2007

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©2007 Denis Brown |  www.quillskill.com