Glass Art by Denis Brown

The Fall
Layered glass art by Denis Brown 2007
Frame size: 29.5" x 22" x 2.5"; main image size inside frame: 13" x 19"

Click images for an enlargement of the work.

Text
The first of the hundred-letter thunderwords of Finnegan's Wake (see below), plus additional text, largely obscured by layering text over text, from the first pages of James Joyce's epic.

Bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronn-
tuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk

This is the first of 10 'thunderwords' in James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake'. It suggests the word for thunder in various languages.
"There are ten thunders in the Wake. Each is a cryptogram or codified explanation of the thundering and reverberating consequences of the major technological changes in all human history. When a tribal man hears thunder, he says, 'What did he say that time?', as automatically as we say 'Gesundheit.'"
Marshall McLuhan

Description
6 sheets of 2mm glass, each spaced 5mm apart in a box-frame. Each sheet is diamond engraved on both sides, as well as etched with an acidic paste. Mounted over a background paper with a unique one-off original printed image, derived from scanning the engraved glass layers and building a 'digital painting' based on these scans. Another sheet of paper spans the top half of the composition and is attached behind the third sheet of glass. It bears handwritten calligraphy, 'the fall' plus color washes and overprinting of blurred scans from the glass layers.

The main block of text/texture spans an area just below center and represents a cloud. Words cloud each other, meaning is hidden. Maybe Joyce would approve- maybe not- who knows?- I don't really care. I have to admit that I haven't read most of the book, and certainly don't care to illustrate his narrative. But clearly Joyce used words and language in a manner that reverberates with additional layers of meaning, albeit at the expense of simple clarity. I believe that contemporary calligraphy will take a significant step forward as an art form when calligraphers engage with such semantic reverberation. But so far, most of the expressive movement merely discard semantics so they can splash about freely and illegibly.
Rather than an effort too illustrate Joyce, this work suggests Joyce as a noble illustration of how words may be used with less clarity, but towards enlarged meanings.

At upper right, calligraphic flourishes are layered with cursive script written in a black glass paint onto glass. Drops of clear epoxy resin have been attached to layers of glass and to parts of the Plexiglas frame.

Frame:
Box frame construction, 2.5" deep with gilt aluminum finish and a 3/8th" clear plexiglas surround which has been engraved with lines continuing the composition, and partially spattered with silver paint. Frame size: 29.5" x 22" x 2.5" Image size inside frame: 13" x 19". Illustration above shows art against a colored wall, white walls will show the engraving on the frame less, but will reveal more shadows of these engraved lines.

This work is available for sale- please contact me for information.