Text and Context
Paintings By Tim Campbell

 

Tim Campbell,  May 2008

 My current body of work is motivated by questions surrounding the intersection of language and religion.  These questions first occurred to me about a year and a half ago, when I found an old poster depicting engravings of the Pater Noster in 30 different languages.  Seeing this prayer rendered in so many different texts and alphabets brought to mind the vast number of people, places, and beliefs that were implied by such a library.  Just as the prayer served as a platform to relate these languages, it simultaneously underscored the differences in culture and meaning that each separate language suggested.  This meeting of old and new, near and far, and the notion of language drifting over time inspired many questions and ideas about what it means to re-present text and what it means to write, particularly when one is writing a text whose history dwarfs your own.  In response to these questions, my paintings employ a play between organization and disorder, clarity and confusion, image and text, figure and ground.  In creating this body of work, I hope to challenge notions of centrality, singularity, and to emphasize the role of language and interpretation.

Growing up in a church-based community, this project has been a way for me to engage with something from my own past and bring it into the studio.  The opportunity to bring the work out of the studio at this location is a privilege and I look forward to any related discussion or feedback.