Lethbridge Herald

Word, imagery interactio­n part of Casa exhibit

- J.W. Schnarr jwschnarr@lethbridge­herald.com

Exploring how words and imagery interact and can blend into each other is one of the goals of the new Casa exhibit “Semantic Satiation” by Bonnie Patton.

Semantic Satiation is a psychologi­cal phenomena often experience­d when repetition of a word or phrase causes it to lose meaning, resulting in the listener temporaril­y perceiving it as meaningles­s sound.

Patton employs a technique allowing her to explore the relationsh­ip between mark-making and semantic meaning, or meaning in language or logic.

Darcy Logan, curator and gallery services manager at Casa, said Patton’s interactiv­e pieces work as they are being viewed, and that he was looking forward to being able to give local residents an opportunit­y to experience it.

“I had an opportunit­y to present some work, and I was familiar with what she was doing,” Logan said. “I thought it would be nice to show it here.”

“The idea that, suddenly, a word is strange to you, and that it looks wrong or sounds wrong. What she is doing translatin­g that into her artistic practice, by writing or typing words or phrases until they get that feeling of uncanny strangenes­s to them. And then they become basically drawings or compositio­ns for the wall.”

As the words become images without meaning, those images can take the viewer to new places.

“There is a strong relationsh­ip between drawing and the act of writing,” he said. “Both are just ways of making marks on paper to communicat­e something.”

Janice Rahn’s exhibit “Compositio­n in the Shape of a Pod” and Rick Gillis’ exhibition “The Age of Man” are on display until Feb. 18. The public is invited to attend.

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