Cynthia Laureen Vogt. Vice Versa

About

These intimate collages are dominated by paper cut-outs and photographs of wooden block letters, their three-dimensional appearance aligning the phonetic symbols with their relationship to the human body. Their sense of depth, furthered by the strata of media as well as the accordion-fold book forms into which they are sewn, is drawn into contrast by cutting both around and against the characters and by silhouetted human figures whose gestures recurringly perform as text. This cutting additionally acts to unify letters and figures with the surfaces on which they are printed, text and support becoming interchangeable.

Vogt uses the book form as a site for the gathering and dispersion of signs, where time, absence, and movement are communicated through the photographic trace of figures or letters on layered surfaces - and vice versa: graphic symbols and anatomies are signified through cut-away absences. The collage elements in themselves become a meta-language of linguistic signs; representations of the very text, paper, or support over which they are layered, occasionally verso-side out. Intermittent use of acetate transparencies produce subtle reflections and shadows that shift and change relative to the viewer’s position. Communication is never still; it’s a process, a function of time as well as the body.