These sandstone tablets came about primarily as a reaction to formal lettering, by which I mean Roman capitals hand drawn and carved for inscriptions and memorials, where letters are very correct, well spaced, on best behaviour. To draw the Roman letter, though it may be deeply familiar, is a fiendishly demanding exercise, requiring consistency of line, a keen eye for proportion and much patient practice. I wanted to explore letterforms that weren’t bound by parameters of legibility, graphic uniformity or even good taste, and so, through drawing and carving, the letters underwent a metamorphoses of individualisation, a retrograde journey toward their ancestor the pictogram.
On a practical level, the carving of lines across its form introduced a level of discipline beyond that required for V-cut letter carving, and so for the carver the process was not as relaxed or fluid as the hoped for visual result.
It is tempting to wonder what they’d look like if they clubbed together to form words, but they are intended to stand alone as individual objects of communication.
Twenty-six Yorkstone tablets measuring 380mm x 230mm x 40mm thick