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Lot Essay
The present work is sold with a photo-certificate signed by the artist.
"All that is important is to know the rule: Anyone who does not know it, will never recognize the prevailing order in things, just as somebody who does not know the order of the stars will only see confusion where an astronomer has a very clear view of things." (A. Boetti 'Dall'oggi al domani', Brescia 1988)
Boetti's Biro works were executed using ballpoint pen on paper, the colours determined by the ballpoints commonly available from stores. The panels of all these works were manufactured exclusively by the Afghanis commissioned to do so, which, in the case of the Biro works was always one man and one woman. Studying them, one cannot help but imagine how the application of the ink reveals either a male or a female hand at work. To do the 'filling-in' of the panels, the artist suggested using a technique known as hatching, a time-consuming and painstaking method of working on grids of four square centimetres at a time - this the artist felt would give the viewers a clearer awareness of the technique used to create the pictures. As the eye travels from the left to the right of the work, the hatching is initially in more or less square fields of intense colour, that adhere to the system initiated by the artist. However, this process starts to deteriorate as the drawing begins to take a looser, freer shape. Whilst the structure of the work is based on mathematical laws, individual creative expression cannot help but assert itself as the work progresses, in a happy intermingling of order and disorder.
The white commas initially seem to be spread randomly across the monochrome surface of blue hatched biro lines, dancing across the panels like notes in a musical score. On closer inspection though, the viewer realises that the commas are assigned to different letters in the alphabet and that we are to fathom the work by reading it. But this process of reading takes time, as at first it is hard to say with accuracy which commas relate to which letters. The concept of time is intrinsic to all the Biro pictures in an a very expressive way: when you first look at the works, you cannot help thinking how long it took to complete them and the intense level of concentration required. 'Time' is also present in the works on a metaphorical level, in the aesthetic combination of the commas spread across the surfaces and the time is takes to 'read' the work. Unlike full stops, commas are active signs that join rather than end sentences. The commas in Boetti's Biro works stand for the river of language, a continuous text. The title of this work, 'White on black black on white' is deliberately ambiguous, referring both to the inexorable passing of time and to a bridging of racial and cultural difference. Boetti's designs and the painstaking handiwork of the Afghanis combine to create a link between two cultures in a such a way that leaves a series of intriguing clues to both for the viewer to discover.
"All that is important is to know the rule: Anyone who does not know it, will never recognize the prevailing order in things, just as somebody who does not know the order of the stars will only see confusion where an astronomer has a very clear view of things." (A. Boetti 'Dall'oggi al domani', Brescia 1988)
Boetti's Biro works were executed using ballpoint pen on paper, the colours determined by the ballpoints commonly available from stores. The panels of all these works were manufactured exclusively by the Afghanis commissioned to do so, which, in the case of the Biro works was always one man and one woman. Studying them, one cannot help but imagine how the application of the ink reveals either a male or a female hand at work. To do the 'filling-in' of the panels, the artist suggested using a technique known as hatching, a time-consuming and painstaking method of working on grids of four square centimetres at a time - this the artist felt would give the viewers a clearer awareness of the technique used to create the pictures. As the eye travels from the left to the right of the work, the hatching is initially in more or less square fields of intense colour, that adhere to the system initiated by the artist. However, this process starts to deteriorate as the drawing begins to take a looser, freer shape. Whilst the structure of the work is based on mathematical laws, individual creative expression cannot help but assert itself as the work progresses, in a happy intermingling of order and disorder.
The white commas initially seem to be spread randomly across the monochrome surface of blue hatched biro lines, dancing across the panels like notes in a musical score. On closer inspection though, the viewer realises that the commas are assigned to different letters in the alphabet and that we are to fathom the work by reading it. But this process of reading takes time, as at first it is hard to say with accuracy which commas relate to which letters. The concept of time is intrinsic to all the Biro pictures in an a very expressive way: when you first look at the works, you cannot help thinking how long it took to complete them and the intense level of concentration required. 'Time' is also present in the works on a metaphorical level, in the aesthetic combination of the commas spread across the surfaces and the time is takes to 'read' the work. Unlike full stops, commas are active signs that join rather than end sentences. The commas in Boetti's Biro works stand for the river of language, a continuous text. The title of this work, 'White on black black on white' is deliberately ambiguous, referring both to the inexorable passing of time and to a bridging of racial and cultural difference. Boetti's designs and the painstaking handiwork of the Afghanis combine to create a link between two cultures in a such a way that leaves a series of intriguing clues to both for the viewer to discover.