Description
Langues sales is sculpture of a cupboard with three compartments, two with doors, one the left and one on the right. The central compartment is open. Behind the left door a wooden sculpture of a face emerges from a tinted panel with a finger making the sign of shushing; in the central panel an open mouth in wood is covered with a veil of organza printed with two hands placed across the mouth; the third is filled with many life-size wooden tongues. The doors can be opened and closed by the viewer.
Statement
When making Langues sales I was thinking about how secrets are kept behind closed doors, specifically sexual abuse and incest. This work was constructed during a 1994 residency in Est-nord-est, St-Jean-Port-Joli, Québec.
Karen Trask, 2024