Weighted Words

Humans, as linguistic beings, require language in order to be - as suggested by Butler, a body not yet given a name or social definition is not yet accessible to us. One comes to exist by dependency upon the address of the other, and, as proposed by philosopher Frantz Fanon, we cannot exist individually in the context of here and now, but come to represent and be understood in the light of our race, ethnicity and gender as a whole. The work of Glenn Ligon currently on display at the Zabludowicz Collection's 'Weighted Words' exhibition address such issues surrounding the construction of race, gender and sexuality. The gallery claimed the exhibit wished to 'focus on the affect of language' His text-based paintings 'draw on the writings and speech of diverse figures', such as the neon work 'Warm Broad Glow II', left, which quotes from “Melanctha,” a 1909 novella by Gertrude Stein. I enjoyed the manner in which Ligon had appropriated such phrases, removing them from their original context to question the important relationship between what is said or declared, and who declares it. Such works reminded me of the speech act pieces of Sharon Hayes, and of the account given in 'Domesticating Barbie: An Archaeology of Barbie, Material Culture and Domestic Ideology', of the 1970 Women's Strike for Equality 'when a young girl raised a sign reading "I AM NOT A BARBIE DOLL"'. The relationship between what is declared and the declarer is a one I am particularly interested in exploring, specifically in relation to gender, and the manner in which language is used to define and, in a sense, govern us in society.