An Image for a Vessel
Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation
January 26 -June 29, 2018
Carris Adams, Yani Aviles, Stephen Eichhorn, Erin Hayden, Lesley Jackson, Alejandro Jimenez-Flores, Thomas Kong, Aay Preston-Myint, Deb Sokolow, Ruby T
Philosophical inquiries into the power that language holds in culture and society have become central to discussions of representation and materiality in the twenty-first century. The privileging of language as the primary determinant of meaning gives grammatical discourse a disproportionate role in determining how we understand and relate to the world. Humans’ dependence on language is so strong and pervasive that, in the occasion of unpacking its power and reach, it is apparent that language is consistently prioritized over matter as the chief locus of meaning in our daily lives. This relationship is paramount when talking about the making, discourse, and dissemination of images. An Image for a Vessel looks to text and symbolism in artistic expression to highlight how language operates as an attributing system that reifies the identities of objects, nature, the self, and others.
Photos by Robert Chase Heishman
