Conversation pieces

Sometimes we talk a lot and say nothing and we write a lot and say nothing, but it sure looks pretty on fabric:



Fauteuil from Cote France
http://www.cotefrance.com/



Several thousand years ago, writing was invented as an alternate means of communication to oral and illustrative forms traditionally used in historical documentation.  The invention of writing implemented the typographic use of symbols and signs in order to translate language two-dimensionally. Without going into depth about the evolution of the use of the written word since the high times of Mesopotamia, it is safe to say that we have repeatedly enjoyed it's use in art and interior decoration over the subsequent centuries:

The writing is on the wall: This fabric can be used to upholster furniture, as a window treatment or  wallcovering:

Document brown design fabric
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/



$153.85
http://www.etsy.com/

                                             

             Shades of the past:

Shaker rug
http://www.bddw.com/

 

Empire lampshade
http://www.ballarddesigns.com/



 The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say. ~Anaïs Nin
  

bonjour bon nuit burlap pillow

  

Conversation rug

http://www.overstock.com/



             



Dresser
http://www.anthropologie.com/

There seems to be something inherently comforting about being surrounded by visual conversational companions in the form script writing on the wall and on fabric and alphabetic characters on furniture and accessories. They are inanimate, they do not communicate audibly, they seem in fact, nonsensical. But is that really true? They do not seem to make a statement in the obvious sense but perhaps in a far more abstract one. What was formerly invented for the sole purpose of communication now finds itself regenerated as tangible poetic residue, ever reminding us of our important connection to one another. And though nothing replaces human companionship, the evidence of one of man's most important visual inventions created from the mysterious vault that we call the mind, breaks down the walls of cosmic dimensions.                                                                           



                                                        Talk to me:



Bookcase

http://www.saporiti.com/

             



Vintage container for metal parts, $165
http://www.etsy.com/

Be obscure clearly. ~E.B. White





 The famous Belgian surrealist artist, Rene Magritte, used the written word in many of his artworks in order to impress a philosophical statement that what one might perceive to be real, was in fact not. This was a familiar theme in the philosophy of surrealism.  His famous paradoxical series: "Ceci n'est pas", used the written word as art in order to impress upon the viewer that what was thought to be a recognizable object in the painting was not really what it seemed to be, but in fact, a mystery that might never be solved.  In this case, the written word is used as a vehicle not to label or record what it is, but what it is not:     





Signs of the times: Ce n'est pas un signe.  (This is not a sign.)  

  

Signage, once created solely for identification, as a warning or for directional purposes, have in present times experienced a morphism into unique forms of decoration in many homes and commercial institutions. Ordinary objects now became artistic statements, a classic surrealist concept.  These ghostly apparitions of their former occupations now act as poignant reminders of the paradox of existence and non-existence.  

                                               

                                                                                                  Coming or going?



Enter-Exit Welcome Mat, $19
http://www.urbanoutfitters.com/



$1,095 http://www.1stdbs.com/









Ok sign, $2,400
http://www.1stdbs.com/

Vintage bus destination map, $1,800

http://www.hollywoodathome.com/

 

 



This just about says it all.