Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language

Just another WordPress site

  • Introduction
  • Contemporary Works
  • Historical Works
  • Selected Projects
    • Tauba Auerbach
    • Paulina Olowska
    • Nora Schultz
  • Dial-a-Poem
  • Sound Works
    • Henri Chopin
    • Paul Elliman
    • Karl Holmqvist
    • Kurt Schwitters
  • Other Resources
    • Exhibition Checklist
    • Events
    • Further Reading
  • Publication
    • This Language Is Ecstatic Because
    • Exhibition Catalogue Trailer
    • Buy the Catalogue
    • The Serving Library
  • Exhibition Views
  • Credits
MoMA

These collages by Paulina Olowska were inspired by the 1926 Czech book Abeceda (Alphabet). In Abeceda, verses by the poet Vítězslav Nezval are juxtaposed with Constructivist photomontages by the avant-garde artist and typographer Karel Teige; the montages incorporate photographs of the dancer and choreographer Milada Mayerová forming the letters of the alphabet with her body. Olowska’s collages are loosely based on Teige’s human alphabet, but she has found the human letterforms in vintage and contemporary fashion magazines, television stills, and snapshots. Not unlike Paul Elliman, who gleaned typography from the detritus of daily life (his Found Fount project is included in the exhibition), Olowska has found language in the everyday rest and motion of the human body.

View Slideshow

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

Body Movement Alphabet Study
img3

Paulina Olowska. Body Movement Alphabet Study. 2007

View Work »

X (study)
img3

Paulina Olowska. X (study). 2007

View Work »