Ecstatic Alphabets/Heaps of Language

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Discovery of the Primitive

Nora Schultz. Discovery of the Primitive. 2011

Nora Schultz (German, b. 1975). Discovery of the Primitive. 2011. Steel, camping mats, PE foam, paper, ink, dimensions variable. Courtesy the artist and dépendance, Brussels. © Nora Schultz

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Discovery of the Primitive is one of what Nora Schultz calls her “printing machines.” The manual printing cycle involves “inking” the metal armature and foam elements with wet paint and then pressing or rubbing paper against them. Patterns emerge on the paper, closer to prelinguistic images or utterances than to any legible text, reflecting, the artist has said, “the process of building language.” This work and Printing Station with Tunnel-Press (also included in the exhibition) exemplify Schultz’s ongoing interest in the origins and evolution of images and forms as a result of a dynamic interplay among diverse animate and inanimate elements.