Sylvia Ptak
Luis de León, L’ode Que Descansada Vida
2012
Vellum, ink Gauze, pigment
17 7/8 x 9 7/8 inches
http://davidkayegallery.com/
Sylvia Ptak lives and works in Toronto
“In my art practice, I have been exploring the ambiguities inherent in the comprehension of language and the multiple meanings that texts generate. In my artwork, I simulate script. How we construct and interpret meaning from texts is the essence of my work. This current body of work is inspired by the handwritten, extensively edited drafts of autograph manuscript pages by authors as diverse as James Joyce, Marcel Proust and Virginia Woolf. These manuscript pages bear witness to the working process of the authors showing corrections, deletions, even doodles. I examined the way in which each author organized his or her thoughts and marks on the page. Through this I gained great insight into their creative process as well as something of the authors themselves, which was very poignant to me.
The word-like shapes in the gauze works are created by pulling snags in the fabric to which pigment is applied. Although these shapes appear to be a familiar script, they are, in fact, indecipherable. Using gauze and a variety of paper such as vellum and player piano rolls, I aim to translate each manuscript page into gestural marks, which although not legible, still retain the essence of each individual author.”
– Sylvia Ptak, 2013, davidkayegallery.com