I began to notice the inscriptions that can be seen
on the streets of Porto (and elsewhere) that
sometimes “climb” and appear on street lamps.
These obsessively repeated inscriptions are, within
what we know as tags, statements of identity,
compulsive signatures of name [and] it interested
me to understand how the terms scribomania or hypergraphia are used to describe a generalised
obsession with inscription close to and typical of the schizophrenic situation. The desire to write
beyond mere communication is commonly ascribed
as a pathological mania that is historically a way of “disqualifying” even professional writers [...]
Some more experimental pedagogical currents have
been successfully using clay moulding to teach
children the alphabet. Clay is then a recognised
material to support cognitive stimulation and the relationship between the concrete and abstract
side of language. [...]
I see that clay thus becomes not only the mould from which writing is created, but also an impulse for writing. This perspective of clay (allied to writing) places it neither as a material of the past nor o the future, but without time. For the creation of a language from the earth seems to posses an incredible longevity.
Suspended from the ceiling of Galeria Municipal and punctuating the whole space of the exhibition, Isabel Carvalho’s Inscrições em Terras Assombradas [Inscriptions in Haunted Lands], are large light globes that incorporate her interest in the roots and ramifications of the urban phenomenon of writing, which she combines with clay’s relationship to writing and language.
I see that clay thus becomes not only the mould from which writing is created, but also an impulse for writing. This perspective of clay (allied to writing) places it neither as a material of the past nor o the future, but without time. For the creation of a language from the earth seems to posses an incredible longevity.
Suspended from the ceiling of Galeria Municipal and punctuating the whole space of the exhibition, Isabel Carvalho’s Inscrições em Terras Assombradas [Inscriptions in Haunted Lands], are large light globes that incorporate her interest in the roots and ramifications of the urban phenomenon of writing, which she combines with clay’s relationship to writing and language.
2021