txtin iz messin Denis Brown, 2006, 22 x 26 cm, 8" x 10"

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The work playfully juxtaposes abbreviated text from modern and ancient cultures.

3 sheets of glass with handwritten cursives and acid etched squares, over a background paper with a unique giclée print. The triangle of calligraphy at the base features the poem 'txtin iz messin', (see below), written in one diagonal direction; and latin text from the opening of St. John's gospel, written with common early Irish scribal abbreviations, in the other diagonal direction. The colored squares in the background derive from a large pixelated letter X, tilted so as the individual squares align with the diagonal text and the acid etched squares on the glass layers.

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Artist's comment
Some have expressed concern at the degradation of language implicit in the modern cell-phone cult of SMS text messaging, (eg., see poem quoted below). However this is nothing new since the scribes of old also used this labor saving device. The TYRONIAN NOTES is a system of shorthand reputedly developed by Cicero's secretary Tyro, which continued to be used in medieval manuscripts for economy of labor and parchment. Super-scripting, macron bars and other abbreviations were used to significantly reduce texts. The nomina sacra (sacred names)  were always abbreviated, IHS XPS for Iesus Christus, DNS for Dominus etc. Beyond this some scribes were playfully creative in their own abbreviations. Francis Byrne cites an amusing example in his introduction to Timothy O'Neill's The Irish Hand: 'The personal name Dáibhídh (David in Irish, pronounced Daw-veeh) could be written .v.v.' (Dá .v. means 'two vs' in Irish). This phonetic simulation would certainly save a lot of time in transcribing a psalter, where David is written so often!

txt also bcumz a verb n d 21st centRe, & since getin my 1st mobile onlE recntly, DIS calligrapher hz regularly Bin txtD!
Text also becomes a verb in the twenty first century, and since getting my first mobile (cell) phone only recently, this calligrapher has regularly been texted!

txtin iz messin,
mi headn'me englis,
try2rite essays,
they all come out txtis.
gran not plsed w/letters shes getn,
swears i wrote better
b4 comin2uni.
&she's african
Hetty Hughes, quoted from http://books.guardian.co.uk/textpoetry/story/0,12586,829988,00.html

©2006 Denis Brown  |  www.quillskill.com