The opening reception of “Non-Text”, was held in the Eastern Michigan University Gallery on Tuesday evening. The exhibit features pieces that use text, typography and handwriting to create visual works of art.
Students, faculty and art enthusiasts milled around the gallery, taking in the diverse collection of works.
“I never thought you could make an image out of letters,” said Aditi Bakshi, an apparel, textiles and marketing graduate student at EMU..
ATM graduate student Yavishtha Chopra agreed, saying that she was really impressed by all of the artwork.
The show’s uniqueness drew in a few out-of-towners for the opening reception. Wayne State University graphic design students Maryvi Nguyen and Ruwaida Ba-arma said they came out to EMU for the exhibit because it was “something different.”
“It’s a different vibe,” Nguyen said. “I like all of the different concepts, and seeing the design in [typography].”
Ba-arma was also intrigued by the exhibit’s uncommon subject matter, and said she really enjoyed seeing how people are exploring the art of text and typography.
Graphic design professor Leslie Atzmon and printmaking professor Brian Spolans created and co-curated the “Non-Text” exhibition.
“Brian and Leslie proposed a show that took textual meaning not from words, but from visual language,” said Gregory Tom, gallery programs director.
Atzmon said that Spolans came to her with the idea to do a show about text as image.
Spolans said that the idea came to him as he was watching his young sons interact with block letters got him thinking about the standards and rules within the confines of language. He feels that rules like these are made to be broken by artists.
Atzmon and Spolans both pointed out that “Non-Text” is a special exhibit because it presents a wide range of media, from drawing and graphic design to print and digital programming.
“It brings together artists, designers, poets, architects,” Spolans said, naming just a few of the talents displayed in the show.
Liese Zahabi, a graphic/interaction designer and assistant professor of visual communication at Weber State University, is one of these talents. (Read full article on Zahabi by Dilann Yasin.)
Zahabi’s colorful piece, “An Exquisite Morass,” received a lot of attention at the opening reception.
She said that her piece explores the idea behind why news headlines look the way they do.
“I guess I didn’t get the black and white memo,” she said. “[The exhibit] is very monochromatic.”
In addition to a colorful visual representation of several news headlines, the piece includes an interactive kaleidoscope search engine.
“I’ve been preoccupied with search engines for a while,” Zahabi said. “I encourage people to stop by and play around with it.”
“Non-Text” will be open to the public in the University Gallery on the second floor of the Student Center until Dec. 11. The exhibition catalog can be found at non-textexhibition.com.
