CHRIS CARPENTER

URBAN HIEROGLYPHS

Fine art using street text to develop a new visual context on etched & painted cotton upholstery velvet.

 

 

 

 

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I walk. I walk a lot. I look at markings, grates & signs in the pavement. My work emerges from focusing on these isolated urban street markings. These images, viewed out of context, speak to me in a new & cryptic language. They suggest a story & offer me the same mystery as when I view Mayan Glyphs & Moslem temple scripts.

  

TECHNIQUE - In order to achieve the effect of markings impressed into concrete, an etching process is used on cotton upholstery velvet. The surface is then painted & airbrushed with acrylic fabric paints. Combining various materials with a bonding agent produces textures & surfaces simulating different types of pavement. A trompe l'oeil effect is accomplished with this process. The work resembles concrete but actually has the soft, tactile quality of velvet. The backings are sturdy but flexible so that the pieces can be displayed stretched over a frame, hung from a rod or attached to a hard surface such as a board.

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