La Souffrance et L'Aventure
Created between 1997 and 1999, and started during my residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France, La Souffrance et L'Aventure Series emerged from a period of experimentation with the relationship between symbols, images, and language. In the Mediterranean setting of Cassis, the works developed as a playful and imaginative vocabulary of critters, flora, whimsical structures, and other invented forms, paired with words drawn from a faux language of my own invention.
Neither the images nor the words offer a fixed key to the other. Instead, their unexpected encounters invite the viewer to construct meanings, associations, and even stories. Descriptive titles add another layer of ambiguity: while they appear to clarify what is depicted, they often complicate the relationship between word and image, creating a space in which recognition gives way to speculation.
Familiar signs become strange, invented words acquire the appearance of meaning, and the boundaries between language and image begin to dissolve. The works ultimately invite a kind of visual reading in which meaning is not given but playfully discovered, allowing images and language to generate narratives that remain open, elusive, and continually becoming.
