Exploding Tongues: Language, Art, and the Russian Avant-garde

Art: Language

One of the many facets of the Russian avantgarde movements that we have been investigating in this course has been the visual representations of language in various mediums. On some occasions, we are presented with hand-made books of poetry in which words presented to us are assigned additional layers of meaning by their visual presentation (orientation, size of the letter-forms, etc...). On other occasions, words appear along-side visuals and become a part of the art they accompany. Below are a few examples of such instances of language as art.

Here on the left, we are presented with an example of a painting in which words take center-stage. An almost immediate reaction to Rozanova's Metronome, is to begin trying to read these word. This could be seen as futile, as few of these "words" seem to possess any obvious quality of meaning. Words such as "АИGL", "АМЕ", and "RIQUE" seems to hint at their definitions hiding in the English, French, and Russian linguistic traditions while also suggesting that their meanings lie outside of those systems. Additionally, the meanings of those more decipherable words, "PARIS" and "ENTER" are called into question, for what's to say that the system that failed us before with the other "words" would suddenly apply? It could very well be the case that it is in this very movement to assign meanings to these "words" from these systems that their true meaning is lost.


Here, we are presented with an example of a painting in which words take center-stage. An almost immediate reaction to Rozanova's Metronome, is to begin trying to read these word. This could be seen as futile, as few of these "words" seem to possess any obvious quality of meaning. Words such as "АИGL", "АМЕ", and "RIQUE" seems to hint at their definitions hiding in the English, French, and Russian linguistic traditions while also suggesting that their meanings lie outside of those systems. Additionally, the meanings of those more decipherable words, "PARIS" and "ENTER" are called into question, for what's to say that the system that failed us before with the other "words" would suddenly apply?

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