Developing Meaning (Brody Neuenschwander: 5 day)
Skill Level: Advanced
Calligraphers often begin a piece by deciding what “look” best suits the text. This approach leaves little for the viewer to do other than to appreciate the visual interpretation that the calligrapher has made. But meaning in calligraphy can be a more open-ended and suggestive process, enticing the viewer to do at least half the brainwork. Text-based art can carry meanings of many kinds and on many layers. The story of modern art is in many ways the story of this broadening of the field of action; artist and viewer become collaborators. This workshop will be devoted to increasing meaning in the student’s work by looking at meaning in modern text-based art. Students will produce a multi-faceted interpretation of chosen texts, using calligraphy, found letters, mixed media, journal work, drawing, etc. The final form will be a book in which textual reverberations have priority over any literal reading of the text.
There is a writing assignment to be completed prior to this class. Brody will send the details of the assignment to each student registered for the class.
Supply List: Variety of pens and brushes for formal and expressive writing; drawing tools (pencils and graphite sticks); gouache; brushes; water pot; palette; black ink; ruler; scissors; cutting knife; glue stick; 11×17 layout or practice pad; a photocopy of 1 or 2 pieces of modern art with text but NOT CALLIGRAPHY.Teacher will supply: good quality paper, book weight, which can be bought by the sheet at cost. You will probably need about 15 sheets in total. Several hand-made pens. No class fee.
About the instructor: Brody Neuenschwander is a text artist and calligrapher. He studied at Princeton University and the Courtauld Institute, where he completed his PhD in 1986. At the same time he studied calligraphy at the Roehampton Institute. From the start, Neuenschwander asked serious questions about the place of calligraphy in the modern world. What is it? How is it used? Where should it be headed? In 1989 Neuenschwander began a twenty year collaboration with director Peter Greenaway, providing live-action calligraphy for the films Prospero’s Books and The Pillow Book, as well as for the operas Writing to Vermeer and Columbus and many other projects.
Though the mark of the pen is usually present in Neuenschwander’s work, so are typographic letters, scratched letters, drawings and paintings. The question is posed again and again, “Is this an image or is this a text?” In 2004 Neuenschwander taught at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, researching the development of text art in the 20th. Recently projects have included video installations, stained glass, monumental texts in metal and stage performances with live calligraphy. Neuenschwander’s work attempts to bridge the gap between conceptual art and the acts of drawing, painting, writing. Neither the medium nor the message is the message. Both are involved in the dialectic between the artist and his experience of the world.
