Scotland Stout, an associate professor of art at Southern Arkansas University, Magnolia, will chair a “Visual Art that is Written” session during the Fall 2007 semester at the SECAC Annual Conference, October 17-20, in Charleston, West Virginia.
During the session, Stout will discuss the benefits and restrictions that words impose when used compositionally in art, as well as the reason(s) for their use in the first place. According to Stout, the history of the usage of words in art runs the gamut from Simone Martini’s “Annunciation,” to J. Kosuth’s “One and Three Chairs,” which plays with the conceptual nature of the word; to Barbara Kruger’s paintings of social commentary juxtaposing image and phrase; to the use of words outside of conventional syntactic sense as in Jenny Holzers’ running neons.
Other topics of discussion include the point at which the visual image becomes secondary and then superfluous to the words or text that the audience reads; whether words should play an active or passive role in artistic composition; when a word-laden piece of art leaves the realm of the visual arts and enters the domain of text; and how technology has affected the use or perception of words or language in art.
Stout will invite the participation of artists who use any form of text or wording in their art, art historians, and art critics for a discussion of the benefits and detriments of literally reading art.
Scotland Stout is an associate professor of art in the Department of Art and Design at SAU.
For more information, contact Scotland Stout at 870-235-4241.
