Pat Boas

Translation (Bob Herbert, NYT Op Ed, May 21, 2010)

 

This piece is part of a series that plays with a coded passage between word, image and world. It begins with a quote found in The New York Times that was translated into Webdings, the standard collection of symbols that come installed on most computers. A written description for each symbol in the translation was typed into Google Images and selected “real world” representations were strung together to stand in for the letters of the original. The result, a string of unfamiliar equivalencies, invites alternate readings and suggests that social and historical amnesia being what it is, Bob Herbert's poetic and newsworthy statement might just as well be incomprehensible code.

- Pat Boas

 

 

From Trickhouse Curator Kerri Rosenstein:

Much of Elizabeth Dove’s work balances visual simplicity with conceptual density, with themes tending towards labor, time and ritualistic record. Attracted to the way her mind spins as a matter of understanding and relating to experience and knowledge, I was pleased to link with Elizabeth and, in this case, Pat Boas.

 

From Guest Curator Elizabeth Dove:

I am intrigued by the ways Pat Boas deftly reveals the fragility of language systems through deceptively simple artistic actions: layering, isolating, pairing or omitting. By scrambling and reshaping information her artwork manifests a sense of longing and a desire to understand.

 

Trickhouse Curator, Kerri Rosentein: www.kerrirosenstein.blogspot.com

Guest Curator, Elizabeth Dove: www.elizabethdove.com

Contributor, Pat Boas: www.patboas.com