There is a wide reservoir of pictorial culture where images and words commingle, declare, assert, question and dissimulate. In this series of paintings, each image contains a sentence with all of the letters superimposed, drawn in the order they would occur if written normally. This writing shares a feature of speech that is often overlooked, the fact that a spoken sentence disappears once uttered. Here, what was said and why it was said remains embedded within each painting, but when viewed naively those words are inaccessible, canceling any opportunity of participating or knowing. However, a dilemma is raised, a risk proposed. Because the sentences are preserved on the back of the panels, they allow any owner to choose to become an overhearer—potentially altering their relationship to the work. What ensues?

All proceeds will be used to create an endowment for a Graduate Scholarship in Vision Studies, directed toward understanding the perception and interpretation of our world bathed in light. The scholarship will support Masters or Doctoral students working in the vision sciences or the visual humanities.

L. C. Sincich is an educator with an active research program in vision, currently working in Birmingham, AL.