Redefining ways we communicate in "Beyond Words"
“Beyond Words” is an exhibition that integrates a diverse group of artists that explore the power of language. Chosen from an international open call by artist and curator Gabriel Sosa, the work exemplifies how language can encompass wide-ranging notions of touch, mark-making, and repetition. Featuring works that range from the playful to the profound, “Beyond Words” reminds us of how we can constantly redefine the ways in which we communicate.
Exhibiting Artists: Jennifer Amadeo-Holl, Bayda Asbridge, Brandin Barón, Chelsea Bradway, Lee Campbell, Stephanie Cardon, Martha Chason-Sokol, Jennifer Crupi, Paola de la Calle, Monica DeSalvo, S.W. Dinge, Ryan Garton, Steve Heine, Reineke Hollander, Sarah Hulsey, Deborah Kaplan, Mirka Knaster, Mary Kostman, David Leitch, Willoughby Lucas Hastings, Mimi Macksoud, Nicholas McKnight, Meghan Mirasolo, Nilou Moochhala, Patricia Palmer, Michael Reynolds, Beverly Rippel, Martha Schermerhorn, Morgan Shankweiler, Lesia Sochor, Lelia Stokes Weinstein, Leon Sun, William Waggoner, Tracy Weisman, Antoinette Winters
Gabriel Sosa is a Cuban-American artist, educator, and linguist. He draws from legal proceedings, personal archives, and contemporary visual culture to explore the mutability of language, the imperfection of memory, and the misinterpretation of both.
“The artists selected for a three-person exhibition in the Annex in 2022 embody the most salient concern in Beyond Words by closely investigating–in radically different ways–how language can be conveyed and absorbed without words as they are traditionally understood.” – Gabriel Sosa
In this post, we highlight the three winners of the Juror’s Choice awards by Gabriel Sosa. Sarah Hulsey, David Leitch, and Nilou Moochhala have been awarded a 3-person show in our Annex section of our Gallery. The exhibition will take place in June of 2022. Please join us in congratulating these three artists and all those currently on exhibit!
We invite you to visit the exhibition page where you will find images from all the artists on view along with statements about each of their works. An exhibition catalog is also available for purchase. “Beyond Words” is on view through March 27, 2022.
Sarah Hulsey
“Syllable Tokens”
pen and ink, pencil, relief print, collage
9 x 8.5 inches
My work is concerned with the hidden, structural elegance of language. Language is a deeply human trait that we use in every aspect of our lives, though its workings are largely mysterious to us as speakers. My work draws attention to those patterns deep in our minds and the rich, varied beauty they contain. I explore the systems of language that we use so effortlessly—phonetics, syntax, semantics, etc.—through prints and print-based installations. Each piece isolates an aspect of a language or a text and creates a visual correlate of its structure, generating imagery from the linguistics of the text itself. Iteration, recursion, combination via rules, variations on patterns—these concepts are foundational to the way our minds process language. Representing these processes through printmaking, with its inherent iteration, sequence, and serial variation, gives a physical analogy to the complex beauty of our linguistic knowledge.
David Leitch
“Art Is Love (Braille)”
Wood (Parota)
5.75 x 5.25 x 5.25 inches
Creating is my job. I work for others to be involved in and connected to their lives. I work on my own ideas for growth and satisfaction. Sometimes, I listen to people, and try to transform their ideas into practical home, office, or food items, and artwork. These are the pieces that I make to fill needs and make others happy. This work determines my function in the community. I also produce what no-one would think of asking for. These pieces are based on the materials I am drawn to and the input that creates feelings in me that causes a desire for a type of communication that words do not express.
Nilou Moochhala
“Pyaar/Love”
suitcase with photographs, books, toys, fabric, games
21 x 23 x 20 inches
As an artist/storyteller trapped and existing between two cultures, I have embraced the complex dual existence that arises from displacement and dislocation from one’s sense of home – and the desire to revisit that which was familiar – through the 'language' of everyday objects. In My Very Own Suitcase Series, I use old family photos, documents and memorabilia that reflect the journeys and paths taken - in real or imagined realms - by various family members across continents. Through these assemblage explorations, I attempt to create environments that illuminate our collective consciousness as citizens of varied stories and experiences; and to preserve those instances and moments that create and define us. How can one recreate lived moments through visual storytelling - whether it is in one's original home or one's adopted country of residence - and to celebrate the 'in-between' existence and rhetoric that arises out of shifts in one's country, culture, community, or self.