When Words Fail, Think Art

by Nikki Stephan

October 9th, 2007 in Art, Creative, Detroit, Entertainment, Film, Gallery, Music

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The Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD to native Detroiters) is home to a very creative and thought-provoking exhibit now through Jan. 20, 2008, titled “Words Fail Me.” A variety of lectures, musical events, performances and film screenings will accompany the exhibit.

MOCAD’s event page will keep you updated on when the contributing artists will visit our beloved D-town.

According to Matthew Higgs — a New York-based artist, curator and writer — the exhibition explores visual art’s ongoing, and often times uneasy, relationship with language: a century-long entanglement between word and image.

The phrase “words fail me” alludes to language’s limits and limitations, a scenario in which language might be considered insufficient or possibly even inadequate, where words become less certain, more blurred and consequently, open to interpretation. Check out an interview with Matthew in the Detroit Free Press to get a glimpse inside the mind of curator (and to find out what exactly being a curator entails!).

The exhibit encompasses a variety of different works from artists depicting the many ways words can form art. From drawings by Anne-lise Coste that resemble illegible scrawlings on diary pages to Carl Pope’s menagerie of colorful posters (pictured above) that expresses a variety of bold and often conflicting viewpoints, “Words Fail Me” will make you crawl out of your mind’s shelter and allow you to form your own opinions as to why the artists chose such phrases to resemble art.

So put on your reflective cap and take a trip to Detroit’s hub for contemporary culture to discover just how artistic a jumble of words can be.