Language Arts

I bet you think of high school or college english classes when you hear "language arts", right? Well, I'm talking about something totally different. I'm talking about how this amazing artist explores and expands the boundaries between language and art. Her name is Nina Katchadourian and she's done some wonderfullly inventive things with language arts. In 2001, she had a "Talking Popcorn" exhibit, in which a microphone attached to a morse code machine and special computer program translated all the "pops" of the popcorn into language. The bags of popcorn were displayed with their corresponding "narratives". The first word of the popcorn was bronzed like a pair of baby shoes. It was "we". :)

Another of Katchadourian's language related projects is "Sorted Books", which is an ongoing project that she began in 1993. It consists of many different stacks of books from many collections, public and private, creatively arranged by title in clusters. They say something about the entire library as a whole, and are quite clever, often humorous. I was inspired to try my own.









There are many more thought provoking works at Katchadourian's site, or if you're lucky enough maybe you can see some of them in person. She has works displayed on both coasts of the U.S. as well as abroad! Look, listen, enjoy, be inspired!