overpainted (negated) texts & books
1997 – present
“The art of subversion can be an integral part of all forms of resistance
to the organisation of everyday life.”
- Raoul Vaneigem
Negatexts are created by the erasure of existing texts. Old religious training manuals, children's books, instructional books of any kind, and in general, books rich in nouns (e.g. Wound Healing a surgeon's manual) have all been overpainted with black gesso while at the same time leaving visible a word or a phrase per page so that another text, a sub-text, a negatext magically presents itself.
from A Personal Dictionary
negatext: n; “Art can never be so well served as by a negative thought. Its dark and humiliated proceedings are as necessary to the understanding of a great work as black is to white” – Albert Camus.
Negatexts fall into two categories:
– full books
– excerpts (framed pages)
all Negatexts are part of an ever expanding Negatextual Resource Centre
link to exhibition (2003)
When consulting the Negatextual Resource Centre remember, everything that is, is always, at the same time, something else.
How to raise and train your whip (1997)
complete books
Halt (Blessed Block) (1997)
12 Days (1997)
The Sob (1997)
P.S. (1997)
You / Me (1998)
Bable (1998)
Happy (Driver Bob) (1998)
Eat (1998)
Playtime (1998)
The Bride’s Instruction (1999)
Wet (1999)
I Can (1999)
Australia in Brief (1999)
Wound Healing (2000)
Day by Day (2003)
Dear Intruder (2003)
Feng Shui Made Easy (2003)
Dieu parle / De la confusion (2017)
C’est notre farce (2017)
excerpts (single pages, framed)
Meet My God (1999)
The Death Committee (1999)
Snatch (1999)
The Book of Etiquette (1999)
How to Raise and Train Your Whip (1999)
The Baby-sitters Club (1999)
In Spite of All (2001)
Dreams (2001)
The Joy of Grandparenting (2003)
Feng Shui Made Easy (2003)
Daybreak (2003)
Vancouver nightmare (2003)
What Katy Did (2003)
Dear Intruder (2003)
Les Plus Qu’Humaines (2004)
13 (2004)
Understanding schizophrenia (2006)
Every Man a Lover (2006)
First aid (2006)
Constellations
(overpainted Births & Deaths pages from newspapers)
2002
70 x 40 cm, framed
Jean Meslier (1678-1733)
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
Alejandra Pizarnik (1936-1972)
Thomas Bernhard (1931-1989)
Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935)
photo books
(black and white prints of complete negated books , 4 volumes)
Renunciations vol.1
(Halt, Agreement, Eat, What Makes My Cat Purr- 3/5 copies made)
Renunciations vol.2
(The Sob- 2/5 copies made)
Renunciations vol.3
(P.S., Happy - 2/5 copies made)
Renunciations vol.4
(You / Me- 2/5 copies made)