Clark’s “Love Letters” Exhibition to Display Language as Art

Wednesday, October 03, 2012

Jeffrey Starr, GoLocalWorcester Contributor

"Timeline" by Don Tarallo

Clark University will be holding an almost two month long Fall art exhibition entitled "Love Letters: The Intersection of Art and Design."

The exhibition begins Wednesday, October 3 at the Traina Center for the Arts, with an opening reception to kick off the show at the Schiltkamp Gallery in the Traina Center from 5-7 pm. The exhibition will run through November 26.

The show will display a wide variety of letter forms in an array of different mediums from a number of different artists. These mediums include video animation, photomontage, ceramic sculpture, drawing and paper collage.

"We want to connect people with artists and designers who love letters," said the co-currator of the show Sara Raffo explaining the overall purpose of the show. "We want to create awareness for people who pay attention to typography and letterform."

The purpose and uniqueness of the art show will be shown in the imaginative ways the artists play with typographic form and function involving letters. To put simply, the show portrays "letter form as aesthetic", according to Raffo.

For those who may not be familiar with the concept of "typography", or the visual aspects of language, as a type of art, Raffo explains.

"Typography animates the language and makes it come to life."

For the artists involved, the style and form of a letter can convey just as much if not more meaning than words themselves. Words, style and form all combine together to create more meaning in what we read than is often thought. The artists wish to convey these meanings in their own individual ways.

For example, history and the meanings expressed in typography are closely interrelated. As a result, a few of the other artists are using history as an important aspect of their work. Don Tarallo has created a project involving extensive research he has done concerning the evolution of letterform from its origins in the ancient world until today. Various creative collages of pages from old books and newspapers will be on display along with letters printed from old letter printing techniques.

Another example of typographic art that will be on display includes the work of Jessica Greenfield. Her work expresses her interest in relating the human hand and other body parts to letterform and the correlation between them. Specifically, she finds in her work how the length of her arm relates to the form of letters. Giant letterforms expressing her work will be displayed.

Sara Raffo, herself a graphic designer, will also have work on display.

A list of other featured artists and graphic designers include Lynn Kiang, Al Jaeger, Margaret Suchland, Dia Zhu Zhen, and Breanne Clement.
The opening reception will also involve a poetry slam.

The event is free and open to the public. The Traina Center for the Arts is open weekdays 9 am- 4 pm with after hours Monday through Thursday 4 pm-10 pm. The Center is also open Saturday 12- 4 pm and Sunday 12-10pm.