steve roden
the silent world, 2003-2004

"my recent body of abstract paintings, drawings, and sculpture further my interest in the translation of text into images using self made measuring systems. i am working with graphic measuring systems to turn the alphabet into lines and shapes that make up the images on the surfaces of the works. the bulk of the paintings continue a series that i began two years ago, translating the simple phrase "the silent world" (the title of jacques cousteau's first book) into a variety of visual compositions. the current works delve deeper into systems of translation and attempt to work with a variety of translation methods in each work - creating an image that cannot be deciphered back into text - but uses the text as a skeletal framework for the final images. text is approached not as something literal; but as a jumping off point to trigger abstraction and poetry instead of didactic meaning." May 2004

these images are the third batch of paintings from the series, begun in the middle of 2003

for more info on the silent world paintings, see the catalog essay by christoph cox

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