Seven Spices, 2011

This project was undertaken in November 2011 while doing a letterpress residency at the Roy M. Chatters Newspaper and Printing Museum in Palouse, WA. The type was set intuitively as games of alliteration and word association based on the names of seven spices. After printing, the text was then crossed out with thread to render the extraneous words difficult or impossible to read. Paired with simplified portraits made of thread, these works are attempts to forge significance out of language, identity and social dynamics. Desire is a driving force behind the images: desire to read the obscured text, desire to understand to whom the portraits refer, and desire to create meaning between the text and the portraits. Furthermore, the strange, simplified faces reflect our longing to establish connections with other people despite our reservations and hesitations.