Description
A-Vide 2 is crafted from handmade linen paper the artist made recycling linen handkerchiefs and table cloths. The letter “A” is cut out of a sheet of plastic and placed on the couching surface before couching the pulp. Once the sheet is dry, the plastic letter A can be removed leaving an embossed imprint in the finished sheet of paper. The French word “VIDE” (empty) follows the “A”, its letters were formed by placing similar plastic cut-outs on the screen mid-process, resulting in thinner areas in the paper once dry. Together the letters spell “AVID”.
A sister work, A-Vide 1 was created at the same time as this work, using the same letters/words and handmade paper.
Statement
A-Vide 2 and A-Vide 1 reflect Karen’s fascination with language and its capacity to present dual or opposing meanings through the simple act of removing letters. These pieces also belong to a series of text works exploring the semantics of emptiness.
In A-Vide 2 there is a literal material expression of emptiness in her use of the “empty” space creating the embossed letter “A”. Yet at the same time it has a stronger graphic presence—due to the sharp shadows caused by the wall of the embossing—in relation to the subtle letters spelling “VIDE”, as if the “A” is trying to recuperate or prop up the “vide”.
This is a play on the seemingly opposite words: vide and avid.
Karen Trask & Don Goodes, 2024